


Rolling With the Punches

by Dr_Mini_Me



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Curse Breaking, Dangerous Adventures, F/M, May lead up to it, Possible Fluff, Pre-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Really it's just that the ages of people are different, Slight Alternate Universe, Slow Burn, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-05-04 02:40:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14583126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dr_Mini_Me/pseuds/Dr_Mini_Me
Summary: Shes a curse breaker with a 50-50 record and a partner in crime that might her killed one day, but that doesn't mean much when you might die every job you do. Will it mean more after she's met Bill Weasley?I'm not 100% sure where I'm going with this though I considered dabbling in a soul mate thing, basically...I have no idea where to go from here or if it's even worth it.





	1. Chapter 1

I'm sure I'd have lived longer if it weren't for Alice Sweet, the girl was a magnet for explosive and fiery balls of death. It wasn't a good look for a team that was supposed to be able to break curses, especially not for a team that had graduated with N.E.W.T Level charms. It was said to be a very dangerous and serious profession, in which a wizard or witch could be killed as a result of an old curse, jinx, or hex and the brochures did  _not_  lie.

"DUCK!" Alice's voice startled me as I basically just threw myself at the floor, the sound of waves of angry bats dove over my head. I felt her arm hit my back as she fell face first as well. We might have had a death wish, but both of us were terrified of bats. Nasty little winged creatures.

"Sweet mother of Merlin." I was huffing into the dirt floor of a tomb in India. What had I really done with my life? It didn't feel like much. An O.W.L. in Arithmancy, N.E. in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration, and Charms were essentially all my life had been to date.

" _Bombarda."_ I pointed my wand from the floor and elected to simply blast through this door instead of going through the four runes and trying each combination. Hopefully I'd actually blasted the door and nothing important.

CRACK! BOOM!

I shielded my head as the spell seemingly bounced off of whatever ward surrounded the door and fired back across us, leaving destruction in it's wake. Pieces of rock and goodness knows what else bounced off my back and legs. A particularly sharp one bit into my arm with some force, irking me. Why were we so risky? It was fun but I was starting to be more of a scar than an Amelia.

"I think we're good, Ames." Alice mumbled as I peeked over my arms, blinking through the dust and debris that had settled over us. Never mind, we couldn't just blast through the door.

"Now what?" I coughed, waving away some of the floating bits and pieces from my face as I sat up.

"I guess we need to figure out the password." She was mumbling again while she stood, walking over to the bright blue runes alongside the top of the door.

"Great." I sighed, following her to actually inspect the symbols with disdain. I never really enjoyed Ancient runes, spell-work was more my deal.

"Does that look like a Fwooper or Unknown to you?" She pointed at the first square containing a cylindrical figure with a curl at the bottom.

"Uh. I'm going to say Fwooper." I peered at it for a second, trying to see if there were any feet on it. Age had worn away quite a bit of the shape as whole. It'd represented the number four which I could only assume meant we needed to tap that one four times...or it was the final rune in the sequence.

"Thats got to be a Graphorn." Alice determined, I nodded. It definitely looked like one, it was supposed to represent the number two.

"And thats a...Runespoor." I was about 98% sure it was considering the line and three spikes to represent the number three.

"Then thats gotta be a Unicorn." Alice was resolute, pulling out her wand.

"Ready?" She eyed me for a moment as I nodded, pulling out mine as well. We had no idea what would happen if we messed this up. I held my breath as she tapped the Unicorn, then Graphorn, Runespoor, and finally the Fwooper. We stood for a moment, watching the bright blue behind the runes die out. Nothing happened at first, so we shared a look and waited a moment longer.

"Did we just me-" I was cut off by the sound of stone grating against itself and moved back as the door swung open with some speed. I was wary of what laid behind the door but so far, we were good. Nothing came running, there wasn't a wave of magic erupting, the door was just simply open now.

I was the first to take a step forwards, Alice followed closely in my steps. Close enough that I could feel her breathing on my arms and stopped myself from thinking it was a spider crawling on me.

" _Lumos_." I flicked my wand, using the light to hesitantly peek into the room we had just opened up.

"Merlin's beard." Alice mumbled into my back as the treasure we'd found glittered back at us in the light. I scanned the room seeing foreign currency in what looked to be gold and silver, along with some pieces of clothing that looked like they'd been extravagant at one time or another. This had been a simple excavation which gave me some confidence to take a step forwards,

"Ow!" I was practically shoved backwards on my arse by something. I groaned from my place on the ground, staring up at the ceiling we'd almost decimated.

" _Revelio._ " I sat back up and began trying to understand what exactly was keeping us from our payday considering there weren't any clues outside of a cracked tomb in the center of the treasure room. A wave passed through the other room lighting the blue force that had a bit of a bite to it.

" _Specialis Revelio._ " I continued, standing now and waving my wand to see if there was any charm or hex in particular that was keeping us out. Blueish and whiteish balls showed themselves in the corners of the doorway, making me sigh.

"So, what is it?" Alice asked quietly, waiting for me to finish my tests.

"Its just shield charms but theres four." I grumbled, deciding to not test out another bombarda in an already crumbling cavern.

"Then what now?" She's furrowed her brow as I pondered which spell would work best individually or if I should attempt to destroy all four at once.

"I'm just going to give it all I've got." I determined numbly.

"Got it." She directed her wand over her body in a fluid motion, whispering the word ' _Protego'_ while I assumed the position and the mental state to funnel all my energy into this.

There'd been on girl that had helped me during Hogwarts, she had a talent for spell creation even though she'd been a bit of a perfectionist, Pandora something or other. I hadn't seen her in ages, she'd graduated my first year in.

" _F_ _ulgur Amnis._ " I spread my legs wide apart and forced everything into the snap of my wrist, a large jet of lightning erupted from out of my wand. I gritted my teeth as I forced it in the direction of each corner, being pushed back from the strength of it. My wand could take this in stride, I'd even dare to say it'd grow stronger thanks to a core of dragon heart-string and cherry wood.

"PROTEGO!" I practically screamed the charm as the walls began crumbling from the explosion. I had to assume this was the entire point of having  _four_  shields in a such a small area, it was meant to collapse the entire tomb and trap/or kill the inhabitants. I fell to the floor as a particularly large piece of debris fell over my shield, shoving me down against the dirt floor once again.

It took a good minute or two before it seemed that all the damage that it could do was over but I don't think I could actually move my wand right now. If I did, the piece of ceiling would surely crush me which meant that either I'd need a trip to St Mungos next  _or_  Alice could help me...if she wasn't trapped as well.

"Ali?" My voice was muffled, but I was hoping she heard me. I could hear another feminine mumble but I couldn't understand what she'd said.

"I'm stuck." I yelled into the dirt with the idea that if I spoke louder, she could hear me. I could hear some movement but I was starting to sweat from the pressure of being stuck between a large piece of rock and the hard floor.

I laid here for a moment longer, pondering how painful it would be to die via being crushed. Would it be quick? Doubtful. Maybe my mother would bring me back just to yell at me for picking this gig, I mean it wasn't  _just_  me. Alice and I fell in love with the idea when a guy in the year above us left England to go do this. He seemed to have so much fun and it was just  _so_  exciting. Idiots. We were both id-

"Ames?" I peeked up when I felt the weight being lifted off and grinned at the sight of Alice's boots.

"Oh good, I was wondering if I'd die here." I chatted away with some excitement as I sat up. She laughed lightly despite the fact that we both knew it was true, I pondered my death almost monthly in this profession. We both did. That wasn't bad by any means, it was quite stressful, but we'd often accepted it which made this process much easier.

* * *

I stood awkwardly with my hands hanging by my side as the Goblins of Grigotts Wizarding Bank categorized and weighed our findings. It'd been a bit of a headache trying to get it all here from India, quite a few trips of apparating back and forth with armloads of it. Eventually we'd get a bag for this.

"Well, its not agreeable that you and Miss Sweet work together but...your results do not lie." A particularly unpleasant Goblin peered down at us from his desk as Alice got distracted by a painting she hadn't seen before in the lobby.

"Thank you." I bobbed my head up and down, beginning to get a bit restless. I wanted to visit my mum and possibly check out some shops for new boots. Mine were beginning to fall apart at the base thanks to a rather determined snake that didn't enjoy me trying to steal his master's treasure. The little bugger had dug it's way almost through the heel before Alice had shot him off.

"You'll be paid in full." I gave the Goblin a bit of a smile as he seemed to grumble about that, getting up and walking down his desk's length of stairs. He moved to go behind the large doors at the end of the office, and I started behind him.

"Alice!" I turned around, calling for my partner in crime who had gotten caught up in discussing something interesting with said painting. Both of us had a unique interest in historical artifacts which is why this profession made sense to us but it did leave something to be desired when most manner of artifacts were trying to maim us.

"Whoop, sorry." I felt my back bounce off of something else with hands that steadied me. It was a he and I had no idea why he was apologising to me when I was the one that stumbled into him.

"My bad. I wasn't looking where I was going." I turned back around, feeling a bit embarrassed as I apologised into a clothed chest. Right, might actually help if you looked up, Amelia.

"It's alright." The chest shrugged. I glanced up to see a red haired man with a shiny looking fang hanging from one ear. I didn't recognise him but I almost stopped to get to know him a little better.

"Amelia? Whose your friend?" Alice's voice was curious, I glanced over my shoulder at her to see she was trying not to grin. I narrowed my eyes at her in some attempt to warn her against whatever she was thinking of doing right now.

"Bill Weasley." The bloke didn't seem to get the message, not that he was supposed to but either way he'd introduced himself.

"Lovely, I'm Alice. This is Amelia Prince." Alice was more than happy to introduce the two of us, much to my chagrin.

"Alice, we've kinda got Ragnok waiting on us." I mentioned heatedly, turning back to see the Goblin looking rather irritated with us as he stood near the door.

"Ah. Hes testy. Try telling him you hope his riches will grow and he'll warm right up to you." Bill declared, making me eye him for a moment. He was more friendly than I imagined him to be from the black t-shirt and piecing. I couldn't tell if that was a good idea or not honestly, and right now I was just going to take it and run.

"Right, well thanks!" I bobbed my head up and down as I grabbed Alice's arm and pulled her along to the impatient Goblin.


	2. Chapter 2

"Your wages." The gobilin was less than pleased with how long it'd taken us to finally go into the vaults with him. We'd waited quietly while he'd stroked the vault and went in to pick up what we were owed. This was a good job (excluding the death traps), we were paid job by job in order to bring in more treasures. Some were good paydays, others...well lets just say that others had us laying down for a tick.

"Thanks! And uh...may your riches grow?" I grabbed the pouch and paused, looking up slowly at the Goblin. He seemed taken aback for a second but I swear by Merlin's beard I saw the ghost of a smile on his face.

"Thank you, Miss Prince." Ragnok nodded, motioning for us to go out the door. I stood back up and shared a look with Alice, if we ever saw the redhead again, I'd have to thank him. Usually we'd be snubbed and expected to find our own way out. This was actually the closest I'd come to having a pleasant experience here.

We stepped outside Gringotts and I actually reveled in the smells of food and people compared to a damp mildew that I'd grown accustomed too. It was nice to smell a wafting of some undisclosed meat or a particularly potent cologne.

"Where are you off too?" Alice raised a brow, taking in the way I'd spread out my arms and was current inhaling deeply.

"Probably the ice cream parlour, then maybe Malkins." I nodded to myself, retracting my arms to my sides.

"Right, well I might follow you for a cup then...who knows? I've got the day to myself and theres not a Salamander in sight." She grinned at me, looking rather excited as we started on our way to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, despite the name it had some of the best coffee I'd ever had.

"You really had it in for those little creatures." I mumbled as we pushed past the various wizards and witches who were all rushing on their way. I'm pretty sure that we were the only ones who were just meandering our way through.

"I don't like how innocent they look." She narrowed her eyes at said imaginary salamander, making me laugh a little.

"Is it because they burned your bum?" I snorted a little loudly.

"Just because they're little, doesn't mean it's okay for them to climb inside my tent and try to roast my arse!" She'd been sleeping fine our last trip, right up until a mischievous or just simply curious, salamander had snunk into her tent sometime in the night while we were in Peru. We'd been trying to find some elusive cave that contained a good amount of gold in it from a pirate that keeled over a long time ago.

"Right, right." I nodded before patting her on the shoulder as we found the Parlour and went inside. I know it's just magic but I always got the most wonderful feeling when I stepped inside the place. It was like the building itself was childhood joy incarnate and it was a lovely place to sit and watch everyone rush by the windows.

By the time we'd gotten our coffees and taken our customary table by the window, I was distracted by someone that had just walked in. He looked incredibly out of place, like he'd be better suited to a Weird Sisters concert than a happy-go-lucky ice cream parlour with all that black. Alice had noticed him first, Bill I think, and she wasn't very subtle as she pointed him out.

"Hey! Theres that cutie you talked to earlier." She leaned on the table with an excited grin as she pointed at the redhead's back.

"Alice!" I hissed, trying to lean back into my seat and possibly disappear into it. I wanted to thank him but I also didn't want Alice trying to play match-maker. Ever since I'd left Myron Barbary about a month ago, she'd been on the hunt. She claimed it was because she was just  _so_  happy with her boyfriend, Heath Tremlett but I swear it's just because she loved meddling with my life.

"What? I'm just going to say hello." She shrugged, a small smile playing on her lips as she stood.

"Don't. You. Dare." My lips fell into a straight line as I practically glared at her, the amount of Owl's from Heath I'd had pecking at my head for her was enormous and this was how she repaid me? Seriously?

"Its just coffee." She couldn't contain her smile this time as she skipped away to tap the man on his shoulder. I almost wanted to bury my face into a book or a newspaper but there was nothing here, not even a menu.

I glanced back from glaring down at my coffee to see she was smiling at him and he was actually entertaining her as she let out a laugh. I watched for a moment longer until she pointed at our table and he nodded a second later. Terrific. Why did Heath have to be on some bloody Auror mission right now? If he was even in the country she wouldn't be here, meddling with my affairs.

"He's going to grab a drink and come join us." Ali suddenly appeared in front of my face, taking a seat smoothly despite her obvious excitement.

"Great." I bit out, taking another sip of the coffee I'd suddenly become less interested in.

"You just need to get back out there, Ames. I know a half veela is hard for any bloke to compete with but-" She was rambling now, noticing my discomfort. It wasn't that I didn't feel ready to get back in the dating game, I just didn't really want too.

"Alice." It was a warning and she'd gotten the memo quickly, quieting down and playing with her cup.

"I just want you to be happy." She was mumbling to herself but I could definitely hear her, making me feel terrible. I knew she thought she was helping but it didn't feel like help.

"I know." I sighed, nodding at her.

"I know you mean well." I was mumbling back to her and watched as her downtrodden look suddenly broke into a large grin.

"Welcome to the party, Bill!" She got up and ran for a chair as I turned to eye the bloke.

"Hey." He was a lot taller than me and lean but not to the point that he was only skin and bones. Instead he just seemed to a thinner sort of wizard that could eat whatever he wanted and not gain a pound. I was ever so slightly jealous.

"Hey, yourself." I nodded to him, turning to look back at my drink before I took a sip of it...it was still good. That made me a little happier.

"Here you are!" Alice chatted away happily.

"Thanks, you didn't have to do that, I could have." He chuckled as he took the seat she'd found. He seemed laid back despite the flashy earring and long hair, it was intriguing.

"Oh, nonsense! We wanted to thank you for that tip at the bank anyways." Alice started off the conversation with little hesitation, she was definitely the more out going from the two of us.

"It wasn't any trouble." He waved her off gracefully, which was hard to do with someone like Alice. She was persistent and when you matched that with her stubbornness, she was neigh unstoppable when she wanted something. I'd figured that out since we met as 11 year olds.

"Oh, how modest. What do you do?" She tilted her head with a small smile, glancing between me and him. I could tell she was comparing us in her head, possibly considering what it'd take to get me to warm up to him.

"Uh, I'm what you'd call a curse-breaker." He was easy going it seemed, not really playing up the glamour that came along with most Curse-breakers like us. Wizards in our profession were usually in it for the fan girls that inevitablly fawned over them...I was starting to doubt if he was actually a cure-breaker.

"Really now? Where at?" I raised a brow, watching his expression stay calm.

"Currently, I'm in China but I'm thinking of heading to Egypt. Heard theres plenty of curses to go around there." He grinned at me, a light wrinkling around his eyes told me was genuinely interested in it.

"Thats so funny. We're curse breakers too." Alice continued on, not seeming to pick up on my suspicions.

"Oh? Thats awesome! I've never actually met women in the business." He leaned on the table, apparently interested in us now.

"Yeah...for some reason most witches would rather not break into places and almost get killed." I snorted. We'd been told several times over that we'd made a poor choice in a profession by people outside of our relatives.

"What was your latest dive like?" He glanced between the two of us, eyeing the scar above my eye for a moment before he looked back at Alice. I ran my fingers through my hair, covering it slightly out of some stupid insecurity.

"Uh..well. We found a cave in India and that was...okay." Alice's excitement had slowed as she seemed to think of a way to say we weren't terribly great but we got the job done.

"We blew it up by accident." I deadpanned, Bill's eyes found mine and he began chuckling.

"Well, correction.  _You_ blew it up by accident." Alice chimed in, making me roll my eyes.

"It worked, didn't it?" I couldn't find it in me to stay mad at her so I laughed a bit. It was funny. I'd completely destroyed a place that had stuck through centuries in a single night.

"Thats not too much. You guys should come to Egypt with me, plenty of ancient sites for you to go to town on, Amelia." Bill smirked at me with a nudge to the elbow I'd left on the table. I don't think I'd ever told him my name...

"How'd you know I was an Amelia?" I raised a brow, inspecting his features.

"Uh, I told him." Alice said that like it should have been obvious.

"Oh. Right." I snorted, idiot. I'd gotten too paranoid from looking over my shoulder in holes I wasn't supposed to be in, to the point that I'd forgotten this guy had introduced himself to us about an hour ago.

"Sorry, bit scatterbrained sometimes." I shook my head, taking another sip of the coffee I'd actually come here for.

"Thats alright, I get that way too. My brothers are worse though." He laughed lightly, spiking my curiosity.

"How many have you got?" I rasied a brow, wondering this for a moment.

"Five. And a little sister, actually." He was happy enough to answer, reinforcing the laid-back persona I'd seen so far. Maybe it was thanks to the six other siblings that he was so relaxed?

"Well, I'm off." Alice stood up abruptly, looking all too happy to be on her way.

"Am I keeping you from something?" Bill looked apologetic as he glanced between us.

"No, no. In fact shes free the rest of the day. Maybe even tomorrow." Alice shrugged with a coy smile, leaving the suggestion in the open as I tried to conspicuously glower at her.

"Have fun! See you tomorrow, Ames." She was all too happy to get out of the shop, making me sigh.

"Sorry, she enjoys trying to play match maker." I sighed, leaning back into the metal chair.

"No worries." He was easy going enough, which was a relief. I'd expected this to become a lot more awkward after Alice's departure but it seemed like he was just as chill as before.

"Am I right to assume you don't have a fellow in your life then?" I eyed him for a moment, wondering why he'd bother asking that, before I shook my head. It seemed kind of obvious that I didn't since Alice was so interested in having the two of us mashed together.

"Not lately. You?" I watched him nod slowly before he glanced back at me.

"Never had much of an interest in men." He was cheeky and it made me smile, I relaxed a bit.

"You know what I meant!" I continued, letting a bit of a chuckle slip through what was supposed to be a look of seriousness.

"Nah, afraid not. I mean theres women but, I guess I haven't found the one I'm looking for." He shrugged, okay. Too serious. Back peddle, Amelia, back peddle. We're not trying to get married here, we're just talking to some guy.

"Right, I'm sure that under the play boy exterior theres a hopeless romantic." I snorted, OKAY. Not what I meant, this was worse. Why didn't I think before I spoke?

"Oh, you think I'm a play boy now?" He raised a brow, chuckling. I was trying to force down a blush and was considering throwing myself out of this window in a second.

"If the shoe fits..." I trailed off with a shrug and a smile, where was this bravado coming from? And could it go back where it came from? I felt like I'd made this exponentially worse now.

"I see what you what you think of me now." He nodded, leaning back with an almost...determined look?

"I didn't say  _that_..." So I guess this was when the bravado left, I can't tell if I miss it or if I was glad it'd gone on its merry way.

"Anyway I can change your mind? I don't want my mum hearing about this, you know." He smirked, I could see him watching me play with the cup out of the corner of my eye.

"What did you have in mind then?" I raised a brow, eyeing him with more interest than I cared to admit. He seemed too good to be true. He was funny, attractive,  _and_  he was in my profession? No, there had to be something wrong with him.

"How about...I take you out for the day and we see where this goes?" Did I just get asked out? I peered at him for a second, seriously wondering if this was some sort of joke.

"Sure." I was slow to respond, still considering if this was an elaborate joke.

"Great." He stood as I watched him with a furrowed brow. Was he leaving now? What hell is going on?

"My lady?" He stuck out an elbow to me, and I forced myself not to laugh at the man's silliness under the worry that I'd somehow offend him.

"Sir." I took a bow before I wrapped my hand around his elbow. This was bizarre but I'd roll with it, I'd gotten quite good at adapting to things after a few years in this line of work.


	3. Chapter 3

"Its not that I don't like things that work properly, I just like figuring out what parts that don't work properly anymore." I mumbled as I eyed a lopsided brass scale that apparently determined everything was worth 20 galleons in weight. I stuck my hand on it and pressed down out of morbid curiosity if it was the needle or the scale itself had been charmed.

 

"And the plot thickens." Bill was funny and relaxed, I enjoyed my time with him after I'd gotten over the fact that everything about him was on the surface. There didn't appear to be any twists so far. He'd appeared to be having fun with me in the Junk Shop and not even Alice could pretend that she enjoyed my junky interest.

"Yeah, guess I'm worth 20 galleons." I declared with toothy grin to Bill who snorted.

"Right." I let my hand off of it and decided that the needle was broken, stuck at the number 20.

"So I know you have some odd fascination with broken things...what else do you like?" Bill followed behind me as I started going through the cloaks.

"Hmm...not these." I declared, letting go of a singed cloak, as I elected to continue on to the books. Clothing wasn't too interesting but I was hoping that I'd find a new pair of boots in here...though that was doubtful.

"I do like books though." I began at the first pile of tottering books and pulled the first one entitled  _Cauldrons: The Ins and Outs_. Some were missing covers while others were literally just the cover with an index. It was a puzzle and since this was my downtime, that meant it was a puzzle that probably wouldn't maim me.

"I like books too but...I like books that I can actually read." I could feel him breathing over my shoulder and noticed he'd leaned over, into my little personal space bubble. I glanced at him for a second to find he was eyeing both me and the book.

"Its a puzzle though, see? Theres a page missing here but there it talks about the differences between Pewter and Steel cauldrons. So what could be on the middle page?" I turned my head to his a little, careful not to touch his cheek with my lips. I just didn't want to step over any lines and make this awkward despite how cute he was. It didn't take much for me to make something horrendously awkward.

"So its not the books you enjoy trying to read here, its the puzzles." He'd taken in all the information I'd given him and made an observation that  _I_ didn't even pick up on. Bill seemed to find me fascinating but amusing at the same time, like a funny picture he didn't fully understand but wanted too. That was all I could assume as to why he'd bother spending time on me.

"Huh. You know...I never thought of that." I peered at his smooth cheek for a second in thought and nodded slowly.

" I'm just glad that you don't actually enjoy reading books with half the pages missing." Bill's face formed a grin as he leaned away from me. His face indicated that he wanted to say something else but, stopped himself. I raised a brow as I noticed him staring at another pile of books with a furrowed brow.

"Percy?"  Well out of all the things I was expecting him to say about a pile of books, that was not one of them.

I took a step near him and followed his gaze to a boy whose long legs were pulled up his chest and by the look of his arms, he was quite tall and thin. His head had the same vivid red hair and freckles that Bill had but, his hair itself was different from Bill's. Bill's hair was sort of smooth but not polished looking, like he'd rolled out of bed this morning and brushed it once but because it was Bill, it looked amazing regardless. So, I might be a  _little_ jealous of his hair but I was glad for my own when I took in this Percy's hair. 

It appeared to have been brushed so vigorously that the curls were beaten in submission around his ears. Like they'd been so defeated that instead of them being light and wavy, they hung down in straight and depressed lines. He was reading a book titled  _Prefects Who Gained Power,_ making me wonder if  he was doing something he shouldn't be when he pulled his nose out of it and spotted us with a startled look behind his glasses. 

"Bill? Uh, good day to you miss." He stood quickly, dropping the book he'd been reading to the floor with a clatter. He brushed all of the nonexistent dust off of his pants before nodding at us, less nervous now that he'd stood. 

"Hi there." I gave him a little wave as Bill went to hug the boy in a brotherly manner, rubbing the hair until it was out of control again. 

"Bill!" Percy's voice was sharp as he pushed the older man away and attempted to right his hair and clothes again with an annoyed expression pinching his features.

I was guessing this was one of Bill's five brothers and that sent a bit of a shiver down my spine. Percy came off as a bit arrogant but, rather silly at the same time as he tried to make himself even taller than he was. I'm sure it made him feel a little better but, all he did was illustrate just how lanky he was compared to Bill's more developed body.

"Just saying hello to one of my favourite brothers, Perce. What have you been up too? You're graduating this year, right?" Bill was animated as he spoke to the quieter boy and I had a feeling I was getting a peek into what he was like around his family. Unfortunately, he was just as composed as he had been over coffee except that now he'd sported a giant nonstop grin on his face.  

"Yes, brother. I am. I very much look forward to my position in the Ministry." He nodded stiffly, eyeing me for a moment before he took a step forwards toward me. I wasn't entirely sure as to what was happening here...it sounded a bit like an 8 year old had gotten ahold of a dictionary and was trying it on for size. I couldn't remember a time that I'd ever heard someone's little brother speak that formally to them. 

"I'm Percy Ignautius Weasley." He took a short bow before extending his hand to me. "Your name, Madame?"  Wow. He  _bowed._  I couldn't decide between feeling impressed that the lad actually bowed at me or dazed at that fact. 

"Uh..." I eyed it warily for a moment before I took his hand and slowly shook it, "Amelia Prince." I didn't bother including my middle name of Morgana. It felt like overkill.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance." He kissed my knuckle lightly, stilling my attempt to shake his head and I forced my face to stay in it's neutral state.

It did, which was very helpful for me considering how much it wanted to curl into disgust, as he stood fully again and let go of my hand. This was the second time that my hand had been kissed and I'd actually appreciate it if this were the last time as well. He'd carried himself in a dignified manner despite the horn-rimmed glasses. At least he attempted to, and I didn't feel like trying to pop a hole in the young boy's ego so I decided not say anything about it. 

"You too." I mumbled, trying to conspicuously wipe my hand off on my trousers as Bill casually strode over to my side again. It wasn't Percy, it's just that my knuckle felt all wet and gross with his saliva now.

"You spend all your time reading in the corner?" Bill's tone was joking but, I was too distracted by the fact that he'd moved a little closer to my side to actually smile. I felt hyper aware of Bill right now and I had no idea why...well. I had a good feeling that it was because the bloke was attractive and I hadn't had much time to just go on a date with any guys until now. 

"No. I am actually quite busy with my studies, not  _all_ of us can go gallivanting off on some silly curse excursion abroad." Percy's tone was sharp as he threw me a look. I stared at him for a moment, realising that the look meant I was supposed to agree that curse-breaking was a ridiculous thing to do. He sort of reminded me of my mother in that way.

"Well...thats good." Bill nodded. "Hows mum?" He was entirely unperturbed by his brother's attitude, unlike me who was starting to feel a little like a fish out of water. I was a little thrown, in fact I didn't really sure where this conversation was going and I sort of wanted to bail on it. Would that be too rude of me? To just turn around and walk about the door right now? 

"Shes doing well." Percy was short before his attention turned to focus on me, which was scary as I did not know what to do right now. It was definitely too rude to just walk out now that he was looking at me like he wanted to say something. Damn it, Amelia, you missed your chance. 

"You look familiar Miss Prince." I blinked at him, not sure if I liked where this was going. "What year are you at Hogwarts? Do we take any classes together?" Was this kid hitting on me or is that just my inflated ego talking? I mean he was technically an adult now so it was legal but still...the thought gave me a cold sweat. 

"Uh..." My gaze turned to focus on nearly everything near us except Percy for a second before I looked back at him and swallowed heavily.

"I graduated about six years ago." I shifted from one leg to the other awkwardly, feeling even more out of place now. Should have ran when you could've, idiot. 

"My apologies, you just-you uh..." His eyes widened and his mouth kept attempting to form words smoothly until he cleared his throat, "you just looked like someone from my year." Percy was suddenly at a loss for words and turning scarlet. It was actually quite surprising considering the formalities he'd just thrown around like we'd been at a job interview.

"You're still dating Penelope, yeah?" Bill seemed to pick up on what was happening to his brother, directing the conversation back on him smoothly. 

"Uh yes, I am. I actually have some personal affairs I need to tend too." He bobbed his head, "lovely meeting you, Amelia. Bill." I blinked while he pushed past my shoulder with a light touch as he mumbled his goodbyes. I turned at the same time that Bill did while Percy speed walked towards the door, pushing it open and exiting the shop without another word. 

"So that was my brother, Percy." We watched him leave in a hurry.

"I could tell," I mumbled while I eyed the boy's back through the window, "you're quite similar." I waited until his brother had finally turned down another street to glance back at Bill.

"And here I thought you might actually like me." Bill was teasing me, I got that part but then I was a touch confused as to why that was relevant.

"Am I really that pompous?"  He looked like he might actually be concerned and my brain stopped working due to the fact that his face reminded me of a very sad puppy. It took me a second before I realised what he meant. 

"Oh, no." I shook my head roughly. "Not at all. Not that your brother _is_ pompous, just uh..." I pursed my lips and stared at the book on the ground, attempting to find a less insulting way of telling him that his brother creeped me the hell out.

"I just get uncomfortable when people hit on me." I elected to use that as a scapegoat and nodded to myself, happy with it. I'd figured out a way to not offend him and still tell him most of the truth concerning my feelings about his sibling. 

"You didn't seem that uncomfortable with me." He sounded confused when I actually turned my attention back to him, and in turn confused me for the second time in 30 seconds.

Did he actually hit on me? It didn't feel like that. Have people just been hitting on me and I thought it as just them being friendly all this time? I sort of gaped for a second, feeling like a fish out of water yet again. Whenever Bill was around, I seemed to take things that were uncomfortable and make them double for me. But, I couldn't tell if that was a special talent of mine or just his presence.

"You..." I tilted my head, feeling a bit confused as I forced myself to piece together a sentence, "hit on me?" 

Was this a date? It didn't  _feel_  like a date but, he had offered to buy me a particularly yellow pair of gloves earlier. But, that'd just been a joke or at least I thought it'd just been a joke. This felt more like I'd made a new friend and we were hanging out to take up some of our free time today. I generally got quite nervous on dates because expectations and either spoke too much or far too little. 

"What did you think this was?" He laughed lightly, moving to leave the store. I just sort of followed behind him trying to catch up with the new situation.

"Honestly, I have no idea at this point." I mumbled to myself, not really sure what to do right now. I should probably go.

"Well..." He seemed to think for a second as he held the door open for me.

"Maybe this will make it a date." I passed by him, ignoring the oddly crisp but masculine smell he seemed to just naturally emit.

I turned and started to ask what he meant, "wha-" right as I felt a pair of lips land on my cheek.

My mouth closed in a stupidly slow way as I felt my face erupt into a full-blown blush. Come on, Ames. Figure yourself out here, it wasn't like he'd just pushed you up against the wall and gave you a long hard snog. Not that I'd mind that righ- okay, let's not go down that road just yet. 

"Anyways, you hungry?" Bill leaned back to his full height and waited for me to respond. Why was he never affected by anything? What got to this guy?

"Amelia?" He started to smirk as the silence and the staring continued on while I felt my cheeks heat up even more. I really needed to respond or else this was going to be just plain sad on my part. 

"Yeah!" I spun on my heel, nodding. "I'm hungry." I took off in a direction that seemed like it might have food.

"Alright! Takin' the lead again, Prince." Bill whooped and gave me a clap which forced me to walk even faster.

* * *

"How was your date?" Alice was currently lounging on the couch in my mother's living room, like she owned the place.

If it'd been anyone else, the sight would be rather offensive, but it made sense for her considering she'd been coming here since we were children. I'd met her mum and dad a couple of times in the past but, they striked me as sticklers for certain rules that didn't allow us to have fun. So, instead she'd come here and we'd do almost whatever we wanted.

"It was fine." I shrugged, focusing on the letter I'd found sitting on my bed and the fact that my mother wasn't speaking to me. It'd been opened and left in shreds, sort of pointing at why she wasn't speaking to me. What was really odd was that the address was near the middle of France, Lyon...why did that sound so familiar?

"Oh Merlin, Ames. Speak to me, woman!" I felt the breeze go by my face as a small pillow went flying. She'd missed of course, never being terrific with aim.

"I  _am_  speaking to you." I picked it up off the floor and chucked it back at her, only glancing up to smirk when it hit her in the forehead. I'd only gotten better at aim after my fifth year, when I was practicing the exact trajectory to throw my shoes at gnomes in my mum's garden out back.

"Fine then...be that way." She was pouting, I knew she was from her tone. It meant I'd probably hear more about this later but I'd still take it as a small victory for now. I'd magicked the letter back into one piece and decided that I'd inspected it enough to just read it now.

_Dear Miss Prince & Miss Price,_

_It is with a heavy heart that I write to you. My daughter has been cursed, rather that she has come into contact with a cursed artefact and it will not let her go. I have heard rumours from your mother, Liliana, that you had joined such a profession. I beg you to help us._

_Yours,  
Mélisande Lyons-la-Forêt  
_

"MUM!" I yelled for my mother at the top of my lungs as I stood, hoping this would be enough to get her attention.

It certainly got Alices, she'd hopped right up and was now trailing me as I searched the house for my mother. I found her calmly sipping tea in the kitchen, staring out the window. There wasn't much to look out at outside of woods this time of night. We lived on the outskirts of a small village in the north of Ireland. Balloo was a tiny village with 200 people at the most in it, the main attraction was a local pub if that could tell you anything/

"Who is Melisanda?" I raised a brow, attempting to read the woman's name and probably butchering it. She was obviously  _very_ french, considering the name and her spelling, I didn't know why she'd know my mother.

"She was a childhood friend that I  _had_  kept in touch with." She glared at her cup, making me regret asking at all. She was pouting. Pouting because I was in danger a lot or pouting because her friend had asked for our help? Who knew?

"And?" I waved the letter, waiting for her to continue. Cursed Artefacts were quite valuable, but I needed to know if this was a legitimate thing before we went gallivanting off on some quest.

"Before you were born, I thought it'd be a good idea to live in France for a bit..." She seemed lost in her memories so I simply waited for her mind to travel back to the present.

"I met her there and we'd become friends before I moved back here. With you." Her face soured as she considered the fact that my dad had left her. I heard about him very rarely, he was supposedly a french wizard that had seduced my mum and left her out to dry. Cesar something or other, I didn't care enough to pay attention to his name.

"Why France?" I raised a brow, wondering why on earth she'd pick France. I glanced at Ali to see she was just listening to my mother and I. Alice seemed to have gotten the memo that my mum was in a poor mood and had the sense to stay quiet this time, just leaning on the kitchen door frame and watching.

"It was far away. Seemed romantic at the time." She shrugged, still glowering at her tea and I realised just how hollow her voice sounded.

She'd ignored most of the war from France, just like she'd ignored most of what I did when she didn't agree with it. I felt like a lot of that had to do with her family but over the years I'd stopped asking. I knew she had an older sister, named Eileen, who disappeared and a mother that didn't appreciate anything even vaguely suggestive of Muggles. It was possible I had an entire family I didn't know about, but I'd never considered perusing the notion. 

"But she  _does_  exist right?" I decided to just focus on what I'd actually come in here for originally.

"Yes. She exists, Amelia." I loved my mum, I did-I mean do. She really did just have my best interests at heart but, she'd been banged up one too many times and it felt like she was so focused on me doing the exact opposite to take a look at herself.


	4. Chapter 4

We'd apparated out of my mum's house with relative ease after a few letters were exchanged with the french woman who I'd taken to calling "Meli". Not to her face, of course. That'd be mental. She was a proud, puffed-up, french woman and I didn't have a death wish.

"Nice house." Alice commented, standing next to me with her arms crossed as we waited for the woman to open her front door.

"Yeah, shes rich." I mumbled, eyeing the large terraces and the gigantic windows and marble pillars. This was a bit ridiculous.

"Ah! Amelia an' Alice, yes?" A short, blonde woman poked her head out of the door with red eyes. She must have been crying, which worried me.

"Yes?" This was all I could muster up for a response to the woman.

"Oh, I am zo 'appy you could come! I am Mélisande, inside! Please." She clapped her hands then went quiet, whispering for us to follow her into the house. I couldn't help but feel like we were walking into a trap but I pushed it away.

"Zis way, please follow me." She was fast for a woman that was smaller than me, which is hard to do. I wasn't the tallest person, really. I glanced over my shoulder as Meli decided we were getting right down to business, she pursed her lips. It was a signal that she wasn't so sure about this job and neither was I.

"Zis is my daugther, Apoline." She was still whispering as she came to a sudden stop, motioning at a dimly lit room that contained a small girl in a large bed. Alice and I almost walked into her with how quickly she'd stopped.

"And?" I nodded, wondering what the point of her introduction was.

"It is 'er 'and, you see. It will not let 'er go." Meli's voice became mournful as she inched closer. I had to walk a few meters before I was able to actually see that there was a hand...three in fact. She'd been messing about with a glory hand, and it'd gotten attached. She appeared to have been sweating profusely, and in the midst of a nightmare. Sucks for her that she'd wake up and be in another.

"Oh, Merlin." Alice mumbled, leaning down next to me to see the hand better. This was above our pay grade, like this was at the same level as a horcrux or some shite like that. We'd shared another look while we strolled out of the girl's bedroom, the same though in both of our heads "Not our kind of curse.".

"So? W'at do you t'ink?" Meli strung her hands together in a worried fashion, watching us with a pleading look.

"Have you asked anyone else?" Alice spoke up now, eyeing the french woman. I was more curious to know what her kid had been doing to get into a tussle with a Hand of Glory. Those didn't just exist by them selves, they took a long and complicated procedure to create.

"Yes! No on' will 'elp me!" She let out a small cry, the tears starting to well up in her eyes. I kind of got the feeling that she'd taken my mother's letter to heart. I imagined she'd exaggerated what it was that we actually did to hype up the danger of it all.

"I don't know if this is in our job description." Alice's voice was quiet as she bit her lip, she felt bad. I didn't feel that bad, I felt more like we'd just escaped a bad day.

"But its cursed! You break ze curse! Simple." Meli lost her mind for a second, looking more angry than afraid for daughter.

"Not our kind of curse." I added, crossing my arms as I stood almost a shoulder taller than the woman. It just wasn't, this was a new level of curse. I mean it was technically a cursed object but as soon as it'd gotten chopped off some poor thieving sod, it was cursed.

"I can pay you 'ery well." Mel appeared to think hard for a second before a sort of crazy desperateness took over her eyes and speech.

"What?" I furrowed my brow at her as she wrapped two hands around my arms. I'm sure I didn't hear her right, we literally just told her that we couldn't help.

"I can pay you! Any price, I do not 'are!" She shook me lightly, confusing me. I glanced at Alice who seemed to sigh and nod, aw come on Alice.  _Why?_  Why'd she have to give in?

"Fine. We'll try our best but no promises." I gave into her, feeling a bit distraught. This wasn't going to end well. I could feel it.

* * *

"And where are we going to get...an unguent composed of the gall of a black cat, the fat of a white hen, and the blood of the screech-owl?" I questioned with exasperation.  _This_ is why we stuck to cursed places instead of objects. You could destroy a place and get most of what you came for, objects were a new can of angry and dangerous man-eating worms.

"Well...we could just blast her hand off and take her to St Mungos." Alice suggested slyly in a low voice as we both eyed the woman humming happily in her kitchen.

"And then what? Deal with that?" I nodded my head towards Meli conspicuously. She was content enough to offer us food made by her and only her. Apparently the house elves weren't allowed to come help until the hand was out of her home...I wonder where her husband was? Did she have one?

"But she's going to pay us  _and_  we could totally find a buyer." Alice was determined to make this work, probably because we'd get paid a good amount and her boyfriend was going to be back in England for another week or so before he'd dip off the radar again.

"Like who?" I grumbled, flipping through another book concerning Hands of Glory that Meli had provided us with. She'd done her own research obviously, a good amount of it to become so desperate that she'd call  _us_ of all people.

"I'm sure someone on Knockturn Alley has a use for this." Alice rolled her eyes, like this should have been obvious to me.

"Fine." I was even more irritated now, staring resolutely at the french books in front of us. They'd been translated by Meli and while most of the message stayed coherent, they weren't helpful. We needed a quick fix and the ones suggested in the book were long and drawn-out. I glanced at the french woman as she placed two bowls of a brownish stew in front of us.

"Whats this?" Alice attempted to be friendly as she eyed the bowl that had been placed in front of her with hooded disgust. Waves of something that smelled seafood-ish rose up out of bowl and into our faces via steam.

"Bouillabaisse." Meli was happy to answer as Alice quickly responded.

"Bless you." She seemed content to bless this woman as I snorted unceremoniously, trying to cough as a cover-up.

"Ah, non. It is a dish, my dear." Meli patted Ali's shoulder with some pity, possibly at her lack of worldly knowledge or that Meli thought she wasn't the brightest. Either way, I sort of hated seafood so I just sipped it carefully. I did my best not to gag at the overwhelming taste of fish. I didn't get it. Fish tasted like I'd dived down to the dirtiest part of the ocean and just opened my mouth to lick the bloody floor.

"Maman? Maman, qui sont ces gens?" I was a bit startled as a feminine voice spoke behind me. I had absolutely no idea what she was saying but it sounded alright? Well not that alright, she sounded scared and defensive.

"Ils peuvent nous aider." Meli responded quickly a soft lilt to all of her words. French was pretty, I guess. Alice and I shared another look but this one was more 'What the hell are they saying?'.

"Why?" This time the girl spoke in english, finally, which was a blessing in disguise. It gave me a clue as to what was going on and I had a feeling that it was about us being here.

"We're here to get the hand off." I responded this time, easily turning around to eye how distraught the girl was and how tightly the hand had held onto her. It must have thought she was trying to steal it. There isn't much of another explanation as to why it'd wrapped itself so tightly around her wrist, which was beginning to turn blue.

"And 'ow?" She raised a brow, looking haughtily at us. What a little shit. We could just eff off and be on our merry way if she'd rather lose her bloody hand.

"I say we just try to pull it off." Alice declared as she stood up, dusting her hands off on her front. I shrugged, might as well at this point. The bowls of french seafood stew laid all but forgotten on the table.

"Will that 'urt?" She took a step back as we approached, fair enough. It didn't sound all that professional, 'we'll just yank it off your hand, no worries.'.

"Nothing worse than what you're feeling right now." Alice nodded with nonchalance, and wrapped her hands around the top as I elected to wrap mine around the bottom of the dismembered limb.

"Hang tight!" I attempted to be cheerful as we just sort of began yanking it as hard as we possibly could. Alice and I grunted for a good bit while the kid let out sounds of distress and her mother yelled over the top of us. We'd been ignoring her as she stood near us, speaking in rapid-fire french to her daughter who held onto the door frame with one hand while we tugged on her other.

"ONE...TWO...THREE." Alice counted as we eased up on the hand only to give it our very best in a timed pull.

"IT'S FREE." Alice grinned as she let go and I fell onto the floor, holding the hand loosely. I was huffing and sweating. This is exactly why I didn't do these sorts of curses, give me a nasty jinx or a hex and I was happy as a clam but this was torture.

I heard nasty cracking sound as I felt the hand slide it's way around my own. It took me a moment of staring at it in horror before I jumped up off the ground and began yelling for Alice when I realised that it was the sound of my own hand breaking.

"GET IT OFF. GET IT OFF!" I waved it around, attempting to shake it off but no such luck.

"HOLD STILL!" Alice's voice was just as shrill as mine, hinting at the possiblility that she was just as panicked at me. That didn't help, hoenstly, it just made this worse.

"APOLINE!" I heard the french woman yell for her kid as Alice dived on top of me, putting her foot on my chest while she tried to yank off the hand that seemed to just tighten itself around me.

"OH BLOODY HELL, ITS TIGHT." Alice was clearly freaking the fuck out, her eyes were giant and she didn't even bother with her wand.

"REALLY?! I COULDN'T TELL!" I screeched, attempting to pull my hand in the opposite direction she was pulling. All of sudden she just let go and began trying to yank me up onto my feet. The hand gripped mine tighter, another string of pain shot up my arm like lightening and make me panic even more.

"OUTSIDE, GET OUTSIDE!" She was still freaking out, and I clumsily followed behind her, running into a chair that was no match for a pair of panicked witches. It fell to the ground with a loud bang behind us.

"OH, BLOODY HE-" I stared as she pulled out her wand and snapped it in my direction. I took a dive right as a ball of explosive magic nearly rammed into my body. It's odd but that seemed to do the trick, the hand just sort of went limp, sliding off of my own in a sickening slimey motion.

"You're kidding me." I was breathing too hard to be able to speak clearly and nearly choked.

"Well...its off." Alice declared lamely as my head spun to glower at her.

"What were you thinking?" I pulled my hand back to me, cradling it with mild irritation. It was most definitely broken at the wrist, an odd bulge pushing at the red skin on the side of my hand.

"I wasn't going to  _actually_  hurt you. I just needed the hand to think I was so it'd jump ship." She was practically beaming as I stared on, incredulous at her explanation and how proud she was of herself.

"LOOK AT MY HAND, WOMAN!" I screeched, ignoring the stabs of pain to wave the mangled limp in her face. It was disfigured, a few fingers looking out of place and hanging limply while the rest began swelling.

"Ames, I- ITS MOVING, STEP ON IT. BURN IT!" Alice jumped back, pointing her wand at the limb that decided it was fine to move around again as she screeched.

I panicked and grabbed the nearest thing with my good hand, slamming it down repeatedly on top of the hand with ferocity of a woman on the edge. I heaved a breath, trying to just simply breath, as I slowed my smacking when the hand had gone limp once again. I glanced at what I'd been using to find it'd been a particularly sturdy flower pot and collapsed, cradling my hand after I'd set it back down.

"Alice. Go tell her we want a thousand Galleons...each." I declared, hoping this would cover the majority of my future medical bills.

"Zat is fine. I cannot zank you enough!" Said woman was more than happy to speak up, I didn't even notice she was there.

"Great." I gave her a feeble thumbs up with my good hand, thankfully it wasn't my wand hand. That'd put me out of commission for a good while.


	5. Chapter 5

I just sort of laid here for a good while, considering if it'd be less painful to just re-break my hand all over again and maybe take out the bones instead of letting this healer work on me.

"Really, Miss Prince. If you'd just lay still, this would be over in a jiffy. It was just a simple break until you went and apparated" I was tsked at as I forced myself to just sit still and bite my lip at the pain. So, apparently, when you apparate with a broken limb it tends to...get a little more mangled and broken.

"Amelia!" Alice bounded up, coffeeless. I glanced between her empty hands and excited face before I decided that she'd been distracted by something outside of coffee.

"What?" I raised a brow, as I spoke through my teeth while the witch relocated some bones around in my wrist.

"I found someone here." She was being coy which I did  _not_  have the patience for right now.

"What? Merlin! What did...you find woman?" I was stopping myself from getting to the pitch just below screeching as the bloody witch finally let go of my wrist. I had to stop and take a breath in sharply in the middle of my sentence.

"I was going to surprise you but now I think I should go." I heard Bill's voice before I saw him and forced myself to stop the spinning of my head right as the witch tried feeding me some awful tasting pumpkin juice.

"Eugh! What is that?" I gagged while she sat the now empty cup down.

"Hush up, its just to help you stop whining. You'll have to spend the night." She was grumbling.

"Why? Its just broken, not  _gone_." I scoffed, with exasperation. There was no good reason for me to stay here overnight! Honestly.

"Yes but it was broken by a  _cursed_  artefact. Goodness. How on earth did you ever graduate?" I glared as the blasted witch finally walked away from my bed. Again, no  _good_  reason for me to stay here overnight.

"Evil woman." I mumbled to myself as something red and fluffy blocked my vision.

"She's just trying to help." Bill's voice was suddenly in my ear before I felt a pair of lips lightly brush my cheek before he stood back up to his full height. God he was tall.

"Are you just stalking me now?" I raised a brow, eyeing him with hooded suspicion. I think I'm starting to feel a little loopy.

"I'm not sure I could. You were difficult enough to get a hold of even when you said you'd write." He almost sounded like a lecturing father right now, making me giggle lightly.

"Oh? She said she'd write you?" Alice's voice was so  _high_. Goodness.

"I don't think I did." I mumbled, picking my hand up and pulling the sleeves of this weird white robe.

"She must really like you then." I turned my eyes away from my arm and hand to glower at her. She would never quiet about my love life until I was married and had a kid, would she?

"I dunno. You think so?" I felt a weight on my thigh which was confusing. Theres a hand on my thigh...but whose hand was it? That didn't make any sense.

"Oh, I know so. I'm so glad I owled you." Alice was giggling now, making me roll my eyes. Blasted woman.

"I'm still here." I waved an arm haphazardly at the pair on either side of me. Bill's gotten shorter. No wait...hes sitting down.

"We know." I watched as Alice's hand came down to pat my leg.

"I'm tired. Go away." I declared as I rolled over, before I reached down and shifted the weight on my thigh to my hip.

Darkness. A soft and welcoming sight behind my eyelids, wrapped itself around me as I slept. It was blissful. I forgot how nice it was to be given a potion before you slept, it beat trying to sleep in a tent in the cold or a cave.

* * *

Click. Click. Click.

There was a metallic clicking sound near my ear. It was rhythmic but loud nonetheless...annoyingly loud. I peaked an eye open to see what was going on and where there was apparently a nice clicking that I could crush.

Red? Why do I see  _red_?

"Alright, shes waking up. Give her some space." I furrowed my brow at that. I don't think I'm in my bed. Did I ever make it home from St Mungos?

"Oh, Honestly, William. I have seven children. I think I know how to act when one of them is waking up from this by now." Another feminine voice tsked, making my eyes widen in a fit of fear. Okay, I didn't make it home.

"Blimey. Shes not Ginny, mum." Bill. I know that voice. It's Bill. Why is Bill here? I didn't mind him being here, it actually sort of gave me butterflies that he'd be in here for me. I hated the hospital. It felt cold...like I'd die here.

"Alice?" I sat up slowly at first, but then jumped up after not seeing her face. The only one I recognized here was Bill's and the rest...actually they all sort of look like Bill but at different ages...and as a girl.

"Uh..Amelia-" Bill started before an older women jumped in. What is happening here?

"I'm Molly Weasley! Its so lovely to meet you." She was shaking my hand before I knew what was happening but at least that awful clicking sound stopped.

"Uhm." I couldn't find words right now, to be honest it felt like my brain was working slower than normal.

"Er...I'm Amelia?" My eyes darted from two boys that looked identical to a younger one than appeared to be entirely focused on me, to a small girl. She was nearly hidden behind who I assumed was her and Bill's mum.

"Oh I know, dear. I'm just so happy you're alright." She patted me some more as I sputtered for words, looking at Bill then back at what appeared to be his mum. Why was his mum here? This is what you'd call coming on too strong, bud.

"Uhm. Wh-what...why are you here again?" I tried to stop my brows from skyrocketing up past my forehead and through my bloody hair.

"Mum...guys. Can I have a word with her? Alone, possibly?" Bill seemed to get the message I was practically shouting at him right now. I watched as Molly corralled her children and shooed them all outside of the curtains. She gave me another giant smile before she closed the curtains. I grabbed my wand and waved it roughly for a Muffliato spell.

"What in the blue blazing hell is happening right now?" I threw my hands up, hissing at Bill.

"I know. I know. She just insisted on seeing you when I told her I'd be here." He explained in a lower voice.

"What? Why are you even here?" I furrowed my brows, waving my hands at him again.

"I thought it'd be nice for you to see a familiar face and Alice is with her boyfriend at the moment. Also, I do have a bone to pick with you." He declared, sitting down where his mum was originally sitting.

"What bone?" I was still just as confused as I'd started out in this conversation. Figures that Alice would be with Heath, I was actually sort of grateful. She meant well but man, she got on my nerves sometimes.

"You never wrote me." He looked as though he'd gotten me there. Which he did, but I was busy. I'd just gotten to France and it took us almost two days to actually get there and then getting back took another few days because we had no idea if it'd be alright with a broken wrist...it wasn't.

"So what? You're cute. I'm sure you went out with another witch the second I left." I rolled my eyes, sitting back against the pillows I'd sat up. I was really just trying to stop myself from getting a little too close to this guy.

"So? You said you'd write." He shrugged, not deny nor affirming that. I knew his type, cute and brave. He was all over you when you weren't paying attention but as soon as you did, he'd dip out...though I never had any of those guys bring their mum in while I was in the hospital.

"Merlin. You're like Alice. I'm sorry...I got busy with a hand trying to rip mine off." I sighed deeply, trying to not freak out about this right now.

It was honestly flattering that he'd even remember me but I was still trying to get over the fact that I'd been introduced to his mum in a bloody white gown. This was embarrassing...probably. I couldn't tell if it was more embarrassing for him or me right now. Probably for me...remember what you're doing, Amelia.

"I'm going to take that as a compliment." He snorted, looking just as relaxed as he had when I first met him. I stared at him for a couple of seconds as I analysed his person, he was a little embarrassed. Either that or the tips of his ears were always a little pink.

"Okay, I'm not letting you distract me! Why is your mum here? And the little people?" I waved at the curtains with my newly healed hand and made the short people motion. It was a little tight feeling but that was normal in my vast experience of breaking bones and other various injuries.

"Again, sorry. It was their summer break and I wanted to stick by but mum insisted she'd come down too which means the rest of the lot had to come too." Bill ran a hand through his hair which I just realised wasn't in a ponytail this time. New but, a good new.

"I finally figured out whats wrong with you." I mumbled as I laid back and watched various things dart over my little enclosed area. Thats what was funny about St Mungos, there was literally always something moving. But whether it was a sample, or a potion, it never fell on you.

"Whats that?" He seemed to sit up a little more at my words. Heh. Amelia! Now is not the time.

"Its your mother." I only thought about what I'd said  _after_  I said it. I shouldn't just outright say someone's mum is whats wrong with them, Merlin!

"I don't mean that your mums awful, its just that shes..." I tried to backtrack and it was a fail. He was going to hate me now. Great going.

"A lot? I know. But, she really does like you." He laughed lightly, making me glance at him. He didn't seem angry. How is that possible?

"You're really nice." I stared at him, wondering what was actually wrong with him...outside of his overzealous mother.

"I've been told I'm cute too." He winked before he stood again. I watched him closely, admiring the way his jeans fit on him and the fact that he'd switched out a black t-shirt for another one. The thought of him getting dressed was getting a little more flushed than I was hoping to for today.

"What are you doing?" I peered at him as he came closer to me. What was he do-Oh...He was kissing me? I blinked a couple of times, as my brain caught up to what was going on but by the time it had, he was gone and he took his delicious citrus smell with him.

"I was just giving you a get well gift." He shrugged as he stood back to his ridiculous height. I kept blinking. Good job, Amelia.

"Thanks." I kept blinking until he took another step towards the curtains.

"Now, no pressure but she is going to freak a bit. You're the first girl I actually told her about since I was like...17." He eyed me with some amount of pity. If his mum was so intense that he felt pity for me right now, I was totally going to show him up right now. Take that you little relaxed hot-shot.

"Great. Go ahead." I jerked my hands towards the curtains as he began to grin.

"Mum? Yeah, yeah. You can go on in. Shes awake and excited now." He was practically taunting me but I was going to show him different.


	6. Chapter 6

"Hi, Mrs Weasley was it?" I stuck my hand out to greet her but she was overly excitable apparently, jumping to hug me as soon as I held out a hand. I held eyes with Bill who smirked as I narrowed my eyes, hugging her back.

"Oh just call me, Molly, darling." She stood back, taking me in with her eyes darting around my figure. I watched as she seemed to catalog my hair, my arms, torso, and eyes.

"Right, well I'm Amelia and whose this?" I turned my gaze to the little girl hanging by her mother anxiously.

"This is my youngest, Ginny. Shes just started at Hogwarts actually." She motioned proudly to the red haired girl who was going to have some serious trouble dating as she got older with this many brothers.

"Lovely to meet you, Ginny." I nodded my head, not really wanting to try and shake hands with this little gal. I took a hard swallow as she then turned to the other three guys in varying ages.

"Then we've got Ron here." She pointed at the next boy, just as red haired and freckled as the other two boys...but he was staring at me a little too much.

"Hi Ron." I nodded at him, feeling a little awkward. He did not respond, just sort of squeaked. I swallowed at that and glanced around the room to see if this was normal or if he should be in the bed and not me.

"I'm Fred." I blinked once at the taller and slightly gangly boy. Seemed Ron was totally normal, I guess.

"I'm George." They looked nearly the same, the only difference was that one leaned down a little compared to the other but I think that was just how they were standing right this second. Good grief, they even  _dressed_ the same.

"What we'd really like to know is," One began but stopped halfway through his sentence, puzzling me.

"how Bill over here, scored a fit bird like you." The second one finished as both pointed at Bill. Did they always talk like this?

"George!" Molly suddenly took on a scolding tone as I heard clicking start and stop again. I furrowed my brow, glancing around the room to spy two knitting needles. I watched as she resumed knitting and realised the clicking was her.

"Amelia?" I glanced up to realise Molly had probably asked me something and was looking for an answer.

"You're the clicker." I mumbled only to want to smack myself in the face. Idiot.

"Sorry?" She eyed my face with worry building, goodness. She was worse than my own mum.

"Yeah? Sorry, it was a long night. I just don't like hospitals, they wear me down." I laughed lightly as I tried to dispel the seriousness, glancing at Bill who was watching me a little to closely for comfort.

"Oh, of course. Fred, go get the healer. We'll take you home with us and get you sorted right away!" She stood, putting down the needles as she seemed to quickly take control of the situation.

"Thats alright! You don't need to do that. Fred, you don't have to do that." I held up a hand turning to her first before she dismissed me with a wave of her hand, so I figured I'd try Fred who just sort of laughed but left to get a healer anyways. Terrific.

"Nonsense, its already good as done, dear." She patted my the blankets over my knee with a comforting smile as I bit back the urge to scream. This was a lot. I wasn't related to her, all I'd done was go out with her son once.

"Mum? How about you go back first with everyone and I'll wait here with her." Thank Merlin for Bill, because I didn't know a nice way to tell his mum that I wanted to go almost anywhere outside of her house. What was really irritating was that I was beginning to actually enjoy the way she cared so fiercely...which set a bad precedent for Bill and I. If I got that comfortable, he'd disappear in a quick second.

"That's a brilliant idea, darling. Fred? Leave her be, shes working. Come on, dear." Molly nodded before she stuck her head out and waved down one of her sons, my lips were almost fused into a single line by this point.

I forced a large smile up until her and the rest of her crew left, leaving Bill and I in the sudden quiet that I'd missed. He let out a long sigh before pushing me over slightly, leaning back in the bed. I stared at him as he did so, watching him lean his head back and close his eyes. How did he deal with that?

"Knut for your thoughts?" He spoke suddenly, startling me as a hand traced some sort of pattern on my back. This was weird...right? This felt like it was weird.

"Does your mother often try to adopt the girls you go out with once?" I raised a brow, waiting for him to tell me what he'd said for her to think that I was somehow her kid now.

"Again, you're the first girl shes met since I was 17. Its a big moment for her...though I was hoping we'd get at least another date in before she found out." He shrugged, his eyes still closed and his hand was still tracing patterns on my back.

"Another date?" I waited again, all the while tracing each of his features with my eyes.

"I mean, if you were up for it. Yeah." He nodded, peeking a single eye open at me. I watched him for a moment longer before I decided I'd turn the tables on him.

"So we've had two by now, and you wanted a third?" I tilted my head, putting my hand on my cheek as though I was considering it.

"You're counting this as a date?" He raised a brow, looking amused now. I was hoping he'd be shocked but no such luck, I guess.

"You've already found your way into my bed, mate." I snorted as both of his eye popped open before he shut them again.

"Not your mate, love." He gave me a half smile, as he shook his head.

"No? Then what are you?" I was trying to not chuckle at this. We sure as hell weren't a couple right now, despite how much his mum wanted us to be.

"I don't know, thats up to you but, I'm not your mate. Unless you do this with all the blokes in your life." He peeked open an eye with a raised brow as I stared at him for a second.

I felt his hand move away from my back and rest down at his side while he watched me. He wasn't continuing and he looked genuinely concerned right now which made me want to laugh in his face. Like I actually had all these guys lined up just outside of these curtains or some shit.

"Oh, am I not supposed too?" I shrugged as I leaned back on to the bed, electing to play coy.

"Seriously?" Both eyes were open now and they were narrowed, I came close to blowing it but I kept my cool.

"Yeah, I thought that was the plan." I raised a brow, while he had the look of slight irritation.

"Amelia...are you serious?" He sat up, leaning on his elbow as he peered at my face harder.

"...no." I snorted, starting to laugh as he threw himself back down onto the bed. It shook with the force of him laying back down and groaning while I chuckled to myself.

"Merlin's saggy left, Amelia. I thought I actually had competition for a second there." I only giggled harder at that, a few tears escaping my eyes.

"Oh yeah, laugh it up." He snorted, elbowing my side lightly.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it." I rolled away, still laughing to myself up until I felt his arm slide around my waist and suddenly I was effectively being cuddled and very confused about it. He felt distant enough that I didn't feel creeped out but I was still very much confused.

"Liar." His voice was low, throwing me even more. How did he get sexier when his voice was lower? Was that a thing?

"Miss Prince? My goodness, keep it in your pants. Shes not out yet, sir!" The evil woman from before suddenly popped up interrupting anything that could possibly happen.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm off." Bill wasn't even close to embarrassed...somehow. Instead he just sort of waved her off and got up to stand next to me as I was waved down by said evil healer again. I let out a long sigh that lasted almost the entire time she checked me over.

"Alright! You're all good but please do try not to come back  _again,_  Miss Prince." The witch tsked me as she took a step back.

"I try my best." I put my hand over my heart in a resolute gesture. I did come here a little too often.

* * *

"I thought we were going to the Barrow?" Bill was confused which I reveled in. I'd actually confused him.

"We are but first, a message for my greatest adversary." I declared before quickly stabbing my quill into ink and attempting to write a letter to Alice.

"Alice?" Bill was simply too good sometimes, he needed to be taken down at notch. Possibly the best place to do that was at the communication area before you actually left the hospital. This idiotic place of healing.

"Maybe." I supplied readily before I began scratching out a note to Alice...it consisted of me being kidnapped by Bill's mum and that I was currently held at a place called the Burrow.

"Let me read tha-Oh, okay. You're just going to send it." I watched Bill's hand go towards the letter right as I hastily shoved it into the tube that would push it up to the hospital's owlery.

"Yup. Also, why am I going to your house? Maybe I want to go to mine?" So I might have whined enough for another shot of whatever gross, mandrake rootish thing they gave me last night and I was actually enjoying the giddiness.

"I didn't think you'd want to bring me home  _that_  early but-" Bill started, wrapping his arm around my waist as I stood back up.

"No, no. You're right." I declared with one hand up as to stop me while I was pulled towards the Floo networks. Hopefully this would be over soon, honestly this was part of why I wanted the potion in the first place, I had a feeling I'd need it to deal with his family.

"The Barrow." Bill announced as I shut my eyes and began coughing almost automatically, I hate floos because of the amount of soot and other odd particles that you inhaled when you landed.

"Oh! Bill and Amelia are here, Arthur!" The first thing I head was Molly Weasley's shrill yet oddly excited voice right as I was almost taken down by a child running past.

"Sorry!" Which child you might ask? I have absolutely no idea and it might be the soot or the potion but I swear the kid had a giant brown bush on her head.

"Was it just me or was that kid wearing a bush on her head?" I pointed as I blinked through the grime.


	7. Chapter 7

"Lets just lay you down right over here." Molly was quick, had to give her that but it didn't distract me from the gaggle of giggling kids that surrounded us as I was laid down onto a couch.

"I'm really okay." I declared warily as she seemed to either not hear me whatsoever or just ignore me. I sighed, mainly from the fact that I'd just figured something awful out. Molly Weasley was actually worse than my own mum in terms of worrying, and I wasn't even hurt right now! Just loopy...I think. I can't really tell.

"I'm just going to go make you a cuppa, Bill? Can you clear out some room in your old room for her?" Molly was quick about this, disappearing out of sight before I could say anything else, like that I wasn't staying the night.

"Great." I was mildly grumpy as I let the hand I'd raised to stop her, just fall back on the couch.

"You'll be fine." He was trying not to laugh, I knew he was. I could tell from the way his lip tried to go into a smile but he kept forcing it down.

"Thanks." I gritted my teeth as I laid here, a blanket was tossed on me before I'd even noticed what happened. Good grief. I laid here still as everyone walked away and the commotion seemed to calm down. I blinked slowly, my eyes were starting close without me wanting them too.

"Hey, Amelia, right?" I almost jumped out of my bloody skin as another boy with red hair and freckles popped up next to me. I glanced at him for a second, taking in the fact that he looked to be about 15 or 16. Fred?

"Fred?" I spoke slowly, not 100% sure if that was actually his name. I was making a shot in the dark here.

"Wow, good job. Barely anyone can tell us apart." Another voice sounded, a light crack which signaled he was still going through puberty. He had to be George then. I'd taken a gamble and apparently won, this was a rare occurrence for me. I usually lost with disastrous consequences.

"You're welcome." I nodded, not really moving as my eyes bounced between the two of them. I needed a way to tell them apart...maybe I could pinch one of them so hard it left a mark. Okay, don't do that. Thats grounds for being sent to court.

"Want to test something out with us?" George raised a brow, at least I think he was George. I don't know, did it really matter?

"Sure. Why not?" I shrugged as I threw myself up to sit fully upright.

"Brilliant." Fred grinned.

"Wicked." George nodded, agreeing with his brother.

I was more worried about figuring out how to tell them apart than what they were up to.

* * *

"So you want to bother your brother but...you don't want him to notice?" I raised a brow as I stared up at the ceiling. I'd meandered my way through the house with the help of the twins and found myself laying on one of their beds. Is this indecent? They were under-age and that much was obvious by the amount of clothes laying around the place in disary.

"Yeah! We just want pretty much," One trailed off,

"Everyone else to notice." While the other finished his sentence.

"Why not charm a note to stay on his back all day?" I sat up and pulled over their parchment and quill. I gazed at the ink on the end of it for a second and touched it ever so slightly against my finger...I think I've figured out a way to tell them apart and  _not_ get sent to the Ministry.

"Fred?" I looked up from the parchment, like I'd lost track of where he was which worked out since he was pacing.

"Yeah?" He strolled closer, eyeing me with a raised brow.

"I..." I pursed my lips as I stood and spread my arms wide. "Just wanted to give you a hug." I wrapped my arms around his gangly form, stretching up until I could touch my ink covered finger lightly against the back of his ear. Score. Mission accomplished, now  _Fred_  had a black dot on his ear and George didn't.

"For?" He sounded confused as I quickly let him go, not even giving him a second to hug me back.

"I dunno, I'm pretty out of it right now." I shrugged, sitting back down on the bed before I decided to start scratching out some sort of spell for this.

"Hows...Locomotor Paper?" I raised a brow as I glanced back up at the two boys who were grinning.

"You can actually do spells?" They seemed excited as I slowly nodded...how old did they think I am?

"You do know I'm actually 22 right? Like I'm an actual adult with a job?" I was starting to worry they thought their brother was trying to hit on a 16 year old girl right now.

"What is your job?" The twins were suddenly very curious, throwing me slightly.

"I'm a curse-breaker?" I furrowed my brows, what exactly had Bill told his family about me? Was it nothing? Because it sounded like nothing.

"Thats wicked!" How do twins actually grin at the same time?

"What did Bill even say about me?" Okay, I'm very confused now. They didn't know I was of age, and they didn't know I was a curse-breaker.

"We didn't hear much." I glanced at the first one's ear to deduce it was Fred.

"Just that Bill's girlfriend was in St Mungos, really." George shrugged. Ooh. Butterflies were running amok in my tummy now, stop that. Bloody insects.

"Oh and that mum just  _had_  to meet you." Fred added with another large smile. Okay, the butterflies died right here. She was lovely, she really was. It was just a lot to take in and I didn't think I'd be around for that long, despite what everyone else seemed to think.

"Nice. You guys know I'm not his girlfriend, right?" I nodded slowly. So they knew next to nothing about me, and I'd still been invited into their house? Really?

"You seem like you're his girl." Fred shrugged, raising a brow as he gazed back down at the spell we'd been working on.

"How?" I snorted in a rather unladylike manner, not really caring what they thought of that.

"You guys hug, kiss,"

"Probably haven't shagged yet but..." George declared as he began nodding at his twin who was just as deep in thought about this apparently. I felt blood rushing to my cheeks at that. They  _are_  teenagers, Amelia.

"He  _did_  stick around for ya so, maybe." Fred finished, looking thoughtful with his fist balled up under his chin.

"Amelia?" I heard a door opening before I actually saw Bill standing in the door way, his hand still on the doorknob.

"Hey." I bobbed my head up and down at him, he just sort of smirked at me which was oddly bewitching. Bill was too attractive for his own good and I had a feeling, he knew that.

"Dinners ready." He declared and moved to the side for us to pass, despite the fact that I hadn't even stood yet.

It took all of five seconds for the twins to bum-rush each other through the small doorway and loudly thump down the stairs. Listening to them chatter excitedly as they slowly left, I stared at Bill for a few seconds. I know my brain was a little slow right now but damn, I wanted to just wrap my hand around that hair an- OKAY, AMELIA!

"Amelia?" He raised a brow, almost smirking as I jumped off the bed and started for the door.

"Yeah?" My voice sounded breathy and rather high, despite the fact that I wasn't out of breath at all.

"Nothing." Bill's voice reverberated with confidence and the sort of smug satisfaction that forced my brain to jump over board and take my logic with it.

I said nothing more, not really trusting my voice enough to do so. Especially when Bill's hands hovered over my hips as I slowly took the winding stairs, each step was uneven and creaked under my weight. I was starting to feel a bit like a whale by the time we'd made it back to the bottom floor.

"Now, now. You're much too thin, have some more, dear." I could hear Molly's voice in all its mothering glory coming from a back room, so I followed it.

I stopped in the door way when I saw the scene of near chaos, nine people were all sitting closely squashed together around a crowded table. I could pick out the Weasleys easily enough but there were two others that I didn't know of. A smaller black haired boy with round glasses was being served more mashed potatoes by Molly as an older redheaded man tried getting his attention, another girl with a large bush of brown hair was chatting excitedly with a spindly looking boy. Percy, I think?

"They won't bite." A deeper voice mumured as a larger hand wrapped around my shoulder and guided me towards two empty chairs.

"That's not what I'm worried about." I mumbled back, sitting down finally. How on earth did the family afford to feed this lot? They couldn't  _all_ be hers, right? Okay outside of the gingers, that left...three outsiders, including myself.

This wasn't  _scary_  per-say. I'd dealt with a lot worse on a weekly basis but this was just so much at one time, it was loud in here. It felt like there were a million conversations happening at once and food was going quick as people rushed to fill their plates. Oh shit, I need to grab food!

"Uh." I reached for the plate that I'd seen there when I sat down to find it wasn't gone. It'd disappeared. Maybe I just wasn't meant to eat today.

"Here." The sound of Bill through the chaos surrounding me dragged my attention to him. I raised a brow, wondering what he wanted and feeling very much out of place, until he nodded towards his hand. I glanced to see a plate full of some sort of roasted meat, carrots, and potatoes.

"Oh, thanks." I bobbed my head up and down as I took the plate and set about eating without making a total mess. If it weren't for him, I'd likely have just not eaten and tried to blend in with the chair. I was trying to do that already, I kept repeating the mantra in my head,  _Become the chair, the chair is me. I am the chai-_

"Amelia was it?" My head turned to see the owner of the voice was the elder redheaded man across the table and to my right. Arthur maybe? I recalled that Molly had yelled for someone with that name earlier. I nodded slowly, my mouth was already full and I sort of wanted to keep it that way. Less chances for me to fuck it up somehow.

"Fancy meeting you then, Amelia, if I can call you that." He gave me a small smile, seemingly unsure as my silence continued through the loud surroundings. I swallowed roughly, and nodded again.

"Be my guest." I put down my fork, just in case he was trying to make some more conversation.

"So what do you do? I know our Bill here is a curse breaker, nasty work but you musn't worry about him too much." Arthur seemed to ramble on, throwing a knowing and proud look towards his son who just cleared his throat after a moment of silence on my part. Is it because I'm short that people never connected me with curse breaking? It's because I'm short, isn't it?

"Right." I nodded slowly, feeling a bit like a ghost with a wobbly head. I didn't care enough to tell him the fact that I too was a curse-breaker and I too knew it was difficult. I'm smart! I can do it too! I can probably do it better than any bloke here...maybe.


	8. Chapter 8

"Uh." I couldn't decide if I should tell the older Weasley or not and glanced at Bill for a short second for some help here. He wasn't any of course, just smiling kindly back at me as though it'd be fine to tell them I did the same work. If I actually didn't count on sticking around long, what could it possibly hurt if I did tell him? Right?

"I heard that you two met at the bank?" Arthur continued, his brow furrowed slightly with worry when I just sort of stared at him. 

"We did." I nodded, that wasn't actually a lie. "Bumped into each other after a job." Technically we  _did_  meet at the bank and we'd met after a job, or at least I'd met him after one. Who knows what he was up too.

"Ah, so then you work at the bank?" Damn, he was still trying for this. I shook my head, swallowing down the anxiety that was creeping up my throat and tightening it. 

"I'm a curse-breaker." I declared, suddenly noticing that there was a lull in the previous conversations that had been going on around us. Bill's dad looked rather taken aback by that, his eyes widening before he blinked. Ah. I've messed up then. This wasn't something that they knew about, obviously, 

"She's got a partner too." Bill supplied happily as though he didn't notice the silence ensuing around the cramped table. his dad blinked again at that but then looked past me to someone else farther down the table. I elected to pick up my fork again and continue eating to somehow avoid the weirdly uncomfortable feeling I was getting right now of being stared at.

"Why do you have a partner? What do you do?" A quiet but curious female voice spoke up at the far end of the table and dragged my attention towards it's owner. It was the bush girl...I need to find a better name for her, 'the bush girl' was starting to feel a bit mean.

I chewed the carrot I'd popped in my mouth and swallowed before answering her, "ahm just regular curse breaking and I get bored," I nodded. Okay, so that wasn't the greatest explanation I've ever given to someone. I can do better than that.

"I do all the same sorts of things that Bill does, I just do it with Alice instead being by myself like him." I shrugged, moving to stab a piece of meat with my fork as the conversations surrounding us began to spark again. Though they were definitely lower, giving me the impression that most of the table was still listening.

"You break curses?" I acknowledged her, raising and lowering my brows quickly as she continued, "Do you work on artefacts too? Or just spells?" I put down my fork, assuming that she'd have another round of questions after I'd answered these. My! What a curious little thing she was! It almost reminded me of Alice and I when we'd first gotten interested in the job so I sort of understood the intense curiousity.

"Well. I do break into all sorts of places that have spells," I furrowed my brow, not entirely sure if I should mention the whole cursed hand thing. "But not much on the artefacts. They're dangerous." I surmised, feeling like that was good roundabout answer.

"Thats actually why she was in at St Mungos." I cut Bill a look of warning, but he brushed right over it with a small smile. I think I might have almost felt flames spewing from my ears when he played the fool with an innocently raised brow as he continued to eat his food.

Gauging by the tension building in my shoulders as Molly sat down across from me, I'd say that I might be freaking out...just a little. I don't know why I was so nervous here, or why his parents possibly disapproving of me would bother me but it did. Probably because dinners in my house were rather silent unless Alice was there, if we even ate together at all. 

"Wicked." The twins grinned at me as they spoke in a freakishly perfect unison.

"Are you cursed now?" I turned my head back to look at the black haired boy wearing a weirdly excited face under his glasses. "Will you have a lot of bad luck? Like black cats and stuff?"

"No?" I tilted my head, wondering if Hogwarts had begun to slack on their courses regarding cursed artefacts. It wasn't as though having your hand broken by a cursed artefact meant that you'd constantly run into walls or something.

Oh Merlin, I'm too loopy to deal with this conundrum right now and I'm too chicken to have Bill apparate me home. The confident little shite wasn't about to meet my mother with me like this, she'd blow her head off if she knew I'd been in St Mungos and there I'd be before she smacked me with a broom.

"You can't get bad luck from a cursed artefact and black cats aren't bad luck," the bush girl spoke up briskly, shaking her head with a disapproving look on her face.

"You really ought to pay attention in class, Harry. It just means she could get sick." The girl almost huffed at the poor boy for his lack of knowledge. Merlin, she was snappy. "Right?" She glanced back at me with a hopeful expression that turned into excitement when I nodded.

"What artefact was it?" I swallowed, starting to feel nervous about sharing the particular information she'd been looking for with such vigour.

"Well it was..." I pursed my lips as I looked back at the girl's excited eyes, "nothing interesting," my wary gaze darted across the table to see Molly's tight expression, and I closed my mouth entirely. She was  _not_  happy about this topic and I didn't feel like getting kicked out of her house right this second.

A glory hand was sort of...taboo? I think thats the word I'm looking for. It's just not a great thing all together, I mean that french girl had to either wait around for a thief to be hanged and buried before she bloody dug him up and chopped off his hand. She obviously didn't do it right either because Alice and I weren't glued to the spot when we saw it.

"Do you still have it?" I blinked as the girl leaned a little closer with her brows furrowed, she was so focused on me that she didn't notice a bit of her hair dipping onto her plate. I actually didn't know where it was right this second.

I wondered what Alice had done with it by now, but shrugged mutely at the girl who was still staring at me with wide eyes. I'd decided it couldn't hurt anyone right now as we had wrapped it up tightly with a lot of black dish towels before putting it in a suitcase of Meli's and locking the bloody thing.

"That sort of talk can be saved for after dinner, Hermione, I won't have it at my table. Eat up." Molly had turned into my personal saviour for that short moment and I quickly turned my attention back to my plate. So I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Molly wasn't fond of Bill's chosen profession, but maybe his dad was?

I began shoveling food into my mouth with little discretion to try and ignore Bill's parents who were silent. They were sharing a look as they ate and I imagined that was just as effective as talking aloud for them. It was actually rather sweet, really and it made me ever so slightly envious.

Outside of Alice and Heath, I don't think I'd ever seen another couple have that special ability. Pretty sure it came with a lot of time and understanding, both were things I'd lacked in my past relationships. I had a knack for finding unpleasant people and dating them or finding a pleasant person and panicking to the point that they figured out I was a little too difficult to deal with on a weekly basis. Course, being out of contact for unknown amounts of time also puts a damper on thin-

I froze when I felt a soft touch on my thigh under the table and blinked at my plate. I was sad to say that I actually locked up with my mouth open and my fork nearly a centimeter away from being in my mouth. It was so close...yet, so far. I decided that it was just Bill again from the wave of the citrus that smacked my nose with some might, while the soft touch began drawing patterns on my trousers.

"You alright?" I felt a warm breath blow through the strands of my hair and considered that phrase for a short moment. Physically, I've been declared healthy but mentally, eh. Thats a bit more like turning right at murky then jumping into the bottomless depths. 

"You're eating like foods going out of style." The whisper continued, reminding my hand to actually put the forkful of carrot into my mouth and chew it. 

"So what? I like your mum's cooking." I defensively mumbled through the carrot, moving to stab a piece of meat before popping it in my mouth to eat it. His designs stilled before his hand laid flat on my thigh instead, so I tried to do my best to ignore the tingling sensation that was slowly finding it's way to heat up my cheeks again.

"When we had lunch you were-" He began but was cut off by Molly and I almost wanted to laugh as his hand tensed, gripping my upper thigh lightly now. So his mum got to him?

"You do? Oh, have some more, dear." She was excited, raising a little from her place across the table to grab a bowl.

"Oh I-" I attempted to stop her from adding some more but had obviously failed so I just let my words slowly die. "Thank you." I nodded as she piled carrots and another piece of meat on the empty side of my plate.

"Theres always good food for those who ask for it in my house." I gave her my best attempt at a gracious smile for the sudden mountain of orange vegetables as she was practically beaming at me right now. I'm not a horrible person, I couldn't just try to give it all back to her at this point.

* * *

I sat on one of the twin's beds again, though this time I was a little more alert and held a cup of tea that I kept blowing on when I couldn't think of something to say fast enough. It was hard, okay?

Theres about six children in here with me, and I was still a little loopy. They were all camped out on the floor, beds, and various piles of dirty clothes that had been gathered up to be a cushion against the hardness of the floor. It wasn't that there were six of them, though it was feeling crowded in here, it was the sheer number of  _questions_  they kept throwing at me.

Every time I answered one, there'd be a second of appreciate awe and wonder before they launched the next question. I was beginning to consider the possibility of me starting up my own little cult with this lot and how much they clung to every word I mumbled. All I needed now was for Percy to start writing my doctrine, actually never mind. He'd muddle the propaganda with big words that would confuse everyone, myself included. 

The only one who hadn't actually warmed up to me in here was Ginny, the youngest Weasley and honestly, I was sort of glad. She was definitely the favourite as the babe of the family and I didn't want Molly jumping down my throat for ruining her innocence. I could only imagine the unholy wreckage she'd unfurl if I said something and the girl tried to experiment. 

"Why is it cursed?" Harry, the skinny black haired boy with glasses, was quite ignorant for a half-blood and I discovered that was thanks to him growing up in the Muggle world. I also imagine that I would have had more of a reaction to being in the same room as the boy who defeated The Dark Lord if I wasn't so drowsy.

"Well," I blew on my tea again, considering the best way to not traumatise these kids, "it's because it got lobbed off a dead thief." I actually felt almost proud of myself for not going in to detail there and I sipped my tea.

"Is it thieves that are cursed?" Fred wondered aloud, and I glanced at his face being propped up by his elbows as he laid across his bed.

"Um. Not quite, the thing that Alice and I dealt with, a glory hand-" I started but, Hermione interrupted me, "a hand of glory." For goodness sake, why was she so quick?

" _A glory hand_ ," I gave the bush girl a muted look of annoyance for her incessant need to be right, "is cursed because someone has to wait around for an actual thief to be hanged and then go dig up his body to chop off his hand and do some more stuff to it." She either lacked the ability to see up close or choose to ignore my annoyed look in favour of being excited about learning, considering she just smiled at me. 

"What stuff?" Harry furrowed his brow, peering at me with the look of a toddler that had been offered a sweetie right before you ate it infront of him.

"Uh-" I blew on my tea and even sipped it this time around, "it's gotta be pickled in all sorts of urine then dried and smoked and hung up on a door." There we go, they got the gist of the idea but didn't know how to make one themselves. Good job, Amelia. Alice might even leave you alone with her and Heath's future children at this rate.

"Why would you even want one of those?" Ron's face looked as though he'd been given rotten fish for dinner. Despite the amusing look on his face, I was more focused on the fact that it was the first time I'd heard him actually say more than a squeak here or there.

"So you can steal stuff," Fred snorted like this should be obvious.

"And not get caught by anyone!" George nodded, eyeing his brother with a cheeky look.

"It's the perfect plan! Risk-free!" They chorused with equally giddy grins on their faces, creeping me out again with their ability to think and say things at the same time like they'd practised it.

"It's not risk- _free_." Hermione rolled her eyes and glanced back at me from her position on the floor between Harry and Ron, "right?"

"No, it's not." I shook my head, "it's like wands. The hands got to be won over by the maker," I surmised in a tone that sounded more confident than I felt. I honestly wasn't sure how you were supposed to win over a bloody mummified hand. Wrap it up in some nice new gauze? Give it a cuppa?

"Oh. I get it, the wands or hands have to pick the owner!" Harry grinned at me, looking almost proud that he'd understood how wands choose their own master. His friends really need to step up their education of the wizarding world for the kid, Merlin.

"Speaking of wands, uh," Fred recounted slowly, glancing between George and I.

George rolled off the foot of the bed I was on and stood quickly, waving his arms at the other kids. "Right, everyone get out of our room!" I surmised that George knew a lot more about whatever was going on than I did. A slurry of groans and complaints were quickly quieted when Fred joined his brother in shooing everyone out.

I shrugged the command off easily, and went to stand when George's hand flattened itself against my chest, "not you." He grinned at me while I raised a brow and glanced down at his hand's spot on my chest, wondering if this counted as me touching him inappropriately.

I peered at him for a moment before his eyes darted over to a piece of parchment on his nightstand that had  _locomotor_  written on it, "oh. Right," I nodded, leaning back into the pillows I'd set up for support. More work on their possible pranks it is then! 

* * *

"So..." I nodded at the single bed whose sheets reflected a deep crimson red. They looked so soft and so clean, just begging for me to slide in between them. "This is it, huh?" I turned around with my hands on my hips at the Wizard I assumed would maybe sleep on the floor or the couch.

"Yup." He wasn't paying much attention to me, stopped in the doorway with his eyes focused on a book and his hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. I eyed the book for a moment, and raised a brow.  _Predicting the Unpredictable: Insulate Yourself Against Shocks_ I don't think that I'd ever taken Bill for being into divination.

"Didn't think you'd believe in telling the future and all that." I commented with my brow still raised.

"What?" Bill's furrowed when he looked up from his book, as though he'd only heard about half of what I said.

"I  _said_ , I didn't think you'd go 'round reading tea leaves and all that." I pointed at the book in his hands for reference. His eyes followed my pointing to the book and stared at it for a short second before his mouth formed an O.

"Ah! No." He shook his head, closing the book and coming into the room and walking past me. "I don't believe in reading your future and all that. You?" He placed the book on the top shelf of a bookcase that looked like it might collapse from all the old textbooks and Quidditch magazines that littered it's shelves.

"No. Don't believe in anything supernatural really." I paused at that, considering it for a moment. "Unless it's writing on a wall thats telling me I'll die in seven days." I snorted, not sure if I should start grabbing blankets and a pillow to go sleep on the couch downstairs or if he was. How do you just ask in these situations? Well, I mean I know how to ask a question, but how do you do it in a less awkward manner?

"Nothing at all?" He looked over his shoulder from the bookshelf, quirking a brow like he didn't quite believe me.

"No?" I blinked, suddenly not as sure as I'd been about 15 seconds ago.

"So you're telling me," he strode forwards from the bookshelf until he was close enough that I could feel his breath on my face, "that you don't even believe in love at first sight?" I blinked again, with the unsettling feeling of the realisation that Bill's eyes were the most brilliant shade of blue that I'd seen in ages.

"How is that supernatural?" I peered at him, utterly confused as to what was happening with my brain right now, "thats just stupid stuff girls giggle about when they're 14." Well, try more like 22, considering Alice's tendency to pull out her tarot cards when I questioned her ever present wisdom and advice. That included her parading around in her pajamas in our tent, swearing that she'd fallen in love with Heath when she'd seen him the first time a year ago.

"Huh." He took a step back, staring at me with an expression that I didn't understand and it bothered me that I wanted to figure out what it'd meant.

"I'm disappointed, Prince." I scoffed as he began tsking me before he turned around and suddenly his arms came up, slipping his hands under the black t-shirt to reveal the pale skin underneath.

Holy shite, hes stripping in here.

I froze, literally found myself unable to speak or direct my eye contact somewhere else outside of the curves of his back and the scars that zagged across his muscles and spine. Blood rushed towards my cheeks when the idea of us actually sleeping together popped into my mind, my nails dragging down his back. In the back of my mind, I knew that I'd gone silent and that it was mildly creepy to just stare as he changed for bed but, I just couldn't tear my eyes away from him.

"Enjoying the view?" I almost jumped backwards at the sound of Bill's wry little comment, not sure how I didn't notice he'd actually turned around and was watching me gawk. His head tilted forwards with an amused smile playing on his lips as I blinked at him and shook my head.

"Sorry! Uh," I apologised, forcing my stare to focus on the single bed in his room as I cleared my throat loudly.

"Didn't mean to stare." My right arm wrapped itself across my body as my hand gripped the bicep of my left arm to somehow feel less awkward. Merlin, I'm a weird individual.

"What are we doing about the bed?" I decided to quickly change the subject, my voice sounding a little  _too_  breathy for my liking.

"I was thinking we'd sleep in it," Bill chuckled. "But, I'm all ears if you've got another idea." He added after a moment, making my cheeks feel even hotter as my stupidly hormonal side clashed with my logic that dictated I was just horny because I'd watched him strip like an absolute freak.

"So, no couch?" I picked my head back up as his scuffed boots came into my peripheral vision.

"Not unless you insist." He was eyeing me with interest and a delighted smile appeared on his face.

"And what if I do?" I smirked, forcing the modicum of confidence that I had to the surface. If he was going to play around with me, then I'd just have to win considering my pride didn't allow anything less...especially not after he'd caught me peeping like that. 

"I guess that I'd have to beg, Prince."

He chuckled, "I did hang around St Mungos all night for you, you know."

A rough hand came up, it's fingers tracing the side of my jaw, "are you really going to make your saviour sleep on an old bumpy sofa?"

"Saviours reaching, Weasley." I raised a brow, attempting to maintain a serious looking face despite the fact that I wanted to laugh when he began to pout.

Bill's hand dropped from my jaw, clutching his chest, "I'm wounded." He threw his head back dramatically, falling down on the bed next to us. "You don't even think of me as your dashing saviour!" If it hadn't been for the grin on his face, I might have gotten a little concerned from the slight insanity of a grown man throwing himself onto his bed with such a serious tone.

"Well..." I began with a sigh, "looks like my dashing saviour has the bed so, scooch." I shooed him away with my hands, deciding that I'd just have to control myself and go to bed like an adult.


	9. Chapter 9

I never thought that laying down in one bed with a bloke would make me as nervous as I am at the moment. Quite honestly, I was mildly annoyed by how many emotions collided with each other all at once. I was anxious, worried, happy, excited, and horny all in one body. 

I'd slept with men before, it's one of those necessary things that happen when you're a curse-breaker. Theres often one site with only so much space for you all to sleep in and everyone needs to sleep at some point. So...you just bunk with your adventurous companions. It wasn't weird, it was just a fact of life.

Sure, there were times where some got a little more than friendly, but it was common knowledge that flings at a site were just flings. Little bits of warmth and companionship with people you might or might not see ever again, and I was fine with those. If anything, I thrived in that environment. No expectations, no feelings, just action.

So why was I now stuck at that evil stage between being asleep and falling asleep? The one where you're nearly asleep and your thoughts start to turn into a swirly chaotic carousel? The carousel that came with jerking awake each time your brain thought you'd fallen off the ride and almost died?

Though, it wasn't just that that bothered me. It was the fact that I was really nervous, and not just nervous but like if-he-moves-one-more-time-I'm-going-to-kiss-him. I was bloody sick of it after an hour.

I began to seriously wonder whether or not his arms were actually covered in electricity and how would one do that without hurting themselves? And _why_ would they do that? I felt my frustration and my nerves skyrocket every time he moved, he forced little zings and tingles run up my arm and straight down to my core. It was starting to get a little ridiculous.

"Can't sleep?"

I almost tensed as his voice suddenly filled the silence, wanting to do something crazy to surprise him like jumping his bones. But, my body was desperately crying out for sleep so I was left with the same conundrum I'd had before. Being tired and frustrated.

We'd been quiet for a while and oddly enough, I found I was actually glad for the sudden noise. It meant that there was a possibility, that maybe he was just as troubled as I was with this situation.

"Not really." I whispered into the darkness, and choose to roll over onto my side with the hope that I'd feel a little more comfortable. At first, I was nervous to turn my back to him but what was left of my conscious mind determined that he'd have killed me by now if he'd wanted too.

"Yeah, I figured as much from all the sighing." I didn't respond, staring out into the dark with a good bit of surprise. I had no idea that I'd actually been making noise, in fact I thought I'd been silent as a mouse. Though it was vaguely flattering that he'd noticed something about me that I didn't.

"Something on your mind?"

"Well..." I didn't have the words to actually describe what was happening inside my head right now, nor did I really want to.

"Alright, I'll go first then." He sounded a hell of a lot more confident than I was as the bed jostled and he shifted to lay around the back of my body. I think Alice said this position would have been spooning if he came a little closer though I'd sort of stopped listening to her by that point. Honestly, it'd come across as uncomfortable and sweaty but it was nice for right now.

"Everytime you move, or breath, it's like my brain shuts off and all I want to do is-," I raised a brow into the darkness when he stopped speaking. He didn't mince words apparently, and I was starting to think that he didn't have a single filter between his brain and his mouth. Still can't tell if that was a good thing or not just yet though. 

"Well..." I began to outright laugh at the fact that he'd trailed off just as much as I had. But, I quieted the cackling into more of a nasally snort out of the fear that I'd wake up the house.

"Am I being laughed at?" I felt the bed shake and quickly stifled my snickering with my hand. Partly because I sort of felt bad, but also because I was terrified he'd try to romance me and I'd make a fool out of myself thanks to the pure stupidity that is my personality. For some reason, the thought of being embarrassed around him felt like it'd be even more awful than that dream where you're naked in front of an audience.

"No?" I attempted to stop the chuckles that were finding their way past my hand by smothering my lips even more. He'd given me a bit more information which was helpful, and kinder than he realised right now. He'd told me that it wasn't just me that was hyper-aware of the other person and that I wasn't a freak because of it.

"Oh yeah? You sure?" His voice came closer, and it's tone excited my fantasies. I'd stilled my snorts into a small giggle that died suddenly when I felt his hand on my side, right above my hip.

"So you didn't just laugh at me?" I could feel his breath on my ear, and I swallowed, willing that my elbow was covering most of my side as he attempted tickling me. All those fantasies would drop dead if I hit him in the balls by accident right now, and I imagined that it'd kill any future possibilities of those fantasies becoming reality.

"Nope, no laughter here." I squeaked, shifting my elbow lower to cover more of my side.

Little known fact about me, I was ticklish but only on my upper ribs. Lower ribs? Nothing, you'll just annoy me. But above about the fifth rib, I was violently ticklish.

My knee gave Ali a swollen lip when we were 14, she'd discovered I was actually very ticklish when I'd sworn that I wasn't. It isn't that I _hate_ being tickled, its that I lose all motor control and someone usually gets hurt in the process.

"I think I heard laughing, and theres only one kind of punishment for laughing..." My eyes widened as panic set in and I clamped down on my side with my elbow. When his fingers began to run up and down my hips and stomach, it was fine. I almost snorted at his attempt but suddenly, they found their way over my wall and he was tickling me with a fury.

"Bi-" I was gasping for air, while he continued to tickle me, laughing. "Sta-" It was like several jolts of electricity that forced my body to jerk and squirm to get away from him while I giggled too hysterically to get my mind working long enough for me to actually stop him from torturing me.

"Are you willing to admit you were laughing at me then?" His hands stilled for a moment, letting me breath, and I nodded quickly. "And during my heartfelt explanation, I might add." He tacked that on after a second of silence and I furrowed my brows until common sense smacked me in the face. Right, he couldn't actually see me right now.

"Yes!" I wheezed, "yes, I admit I was laughing." I grabbed his hands in a tight grip when they moved again against my side out of pure panic. I was on my back with Bill leaning down from somewhere above me, I couldn't actually let of his hands to feel his face but I wanted to know if he was smiling or not right now.

"And?" He prodded my stomach gently, making me tense up again.

" _And?_ " I snorted, what and? I said sorry for laughing and that was all I'd done. Maybe I'd knocked a couple of his teeth out by accident though I didn't feel like I'd hit anything at the moment.

" _And_ it was during my heartfelt confession that you were oh-so excited to hear, Ames." Oh, he's smirking right now isn't he?

"Who said I was excited? Maybe I just tolerate you." I was smirking at a guy that couldn't see me, even though it somehow felt like he could. In the back of my head, I was wondering how Bill knew I'd been anxious or how he'd heard me apparently sighing when I didn't.

But, I just sort of brushed his oddly perceptive tendencies off as I had a habit of obsessing over I appeared to other people. I assumed that all the time I spent wondering and worrying, he spent it watching me and listening.

"Ah." He laughed, and the bed shook as he laid back down before I felt his arm fall across my stomach and his breath on my shoulder. "You know what I think?" I opened my mouth to ask what but he didn't wait for my answer, "I think that _you're_ going to be the first one to crack between the two of us here."

"Crack?" I almost bristled at what felt like a serious accusation, and I don't know why I'd heard my mother's voice in my head instead of Bill's.

"Mhm," he hummed and pressed his lips to my shoulder in what felt like a soft smile. "I _am_ the one thats stuck around, and I am sort of amazing, aren't I?" I clenched my jaw, praying that I'd stay quiet as unprompted anger rushed through my arms and legs. Come on, let's not just prove him right this once. That'd be a feat wouldn't it, Ames?

It hadn't been the first time that this sort of thing had happened, it'd been an ongoing issue that I was always working towards fixing. At least this time my wand wasn't spouting off curses and spells of it's own accord just because I snapped. Progress is progress, no matter how little it was.

"What do you mean _crack_? Do you even know how difficult it is to do what Alice and I do without a bloody dick swinging between our legs?" I sat up, with a fury that felt undeserved and incredibly disorienting, like I didn't have any control over myself and I was watching this happen outside of my head.

"I get that you're terrific and attractive and all that but the _rest_ of us have to deal with being bloody normal, prick." Panic had begun to seep in between the oddly convivial atmosphere that I'd thought was taking place. I was ruining everything and I didn't know why.

Everything was fine, we'd been laughing and I'd been happy but then suddenly I was just out of my mind. The part my brain that controlled my limbs and mouth right now wasn't quite me and it'd decided that he was attacking me, calling me weak.

Even though _I_  knew this was just me freaking out, his words sounded like my mothers somehow which drove my brain to flip on autopilot. It'd decided that it needed to protect me by pushing him away as hard as I allowed via...this weird sort of argument that I was watching take place.

I mean, I wasn't quite inside my head right now even though I was. It was like I was outside of it, watching someone that looked like me act like a bloody loon while Bill just sort of absorbed my outburst in silence. I was waving my arms around and yelling at my idiotic need to ruin things by hurting perfectly lovely people but I just couldn't stop myself.

"Easy there, Prince." His voice was gentle, hesitant, and not what I'd expected. I furrowed my brow out of confusion, "I didn't mean you were-that you were below me...or something. You're actually rather talented, more than you give yourself credit for." His arm moved from my stomach, and his hand drew back to lay lightly on my clothed thigh, rubbing it slowly.

"Sor-," my voice cracked and I cleared my throat before I decided to lay back down with a thump, "Sorry." I swallowed back the choking feeling of the need to cry out of frustration with myself. I hadn't felt it in a while but right now I didn't feel like dealing with it.

Simply put, I was a mess. I was just...a mess and this is probably why I hadn't been able to hold down a relationship with another person outside of Alice for more than a month. I overreacted and I over thought everything, this is exactly why I didn't dabble in long-term relationships.

"It's alright. We're all allowed to get upset, Ames." Merlin, he was weird.

"Uhm. Sure." I had zero right to be upset, he'd been the perfect gentleman. "Sure we do."

What sort of a guy was this perceptive, nice, calm, _and_ interested in me? Did he secretly harvest Unicorns in his spare time? Hang up children in his basement? I mean his family was a bit of a nightmare, there were so bloody many of them and so friendly. But, that was all the negatives that came with Bill so far so I was honestly expecting something along the lines of being a murderer or-.

"Anyways, before you began complimenting me so heavily," he chuckled and derailed my train of thought entirely. Out of all that, he heard me _complimenting_ him?

"How di-" my mouth fell open from shock as I turned to stare at where I figured he was in the dark but he'd cut me off. "I was going to say, that you were going to be the first to crack and say you love me." He was so smug that I was left speechless, gaping like a big bloody fish for words. I think I'm missing some of the pieces to the puzzle here, was he being sarcastic? He didn't sound sarcastic.

"Wow." I swallowed, searching for the right tone, "someone's got a big bloody head on their shoulders."

"Agh! Theres that bite I know so well." He groaned as though he was in pain but then all of a sudden, I felt my body being squished against his in what I assumed was his attempt a hug with both of us laying down.

We laid there for a while, not speaking but not moving and I found that I was actually relaxing. I could feel each muscle loosen until most of my body went slack and I just breathed in the smell of him, it wasn't as citrusy as before. I was guessing that he had a cologne that smelled like oranges and lemons, but he seemed to naturally smell crisp and clean.

"Are you ever going to finish your sentence from earlier?" I spoke into the dark, not paying much attention as the need to sleep began bashing me of the head. "Or just leave me waiting?" I smiled a little, wondering how I was getting butterflies right now as my eyes slowly shut of their own accord.

He chuckled as I slipped into my dream, "I guess I just wanted to touch you."


	10. Chapter 10

So...I had some nuggets of wisdom to remember from last night, never sleep in Bill's childhood bed again and don't wear jeans to bed. I don't think I've ever woken up so bloody uncomfortable in my life and if I felt this bad, I can only imagine how well Bill slept. When I'd gotten up to pee half of his body was coming off the bed and his feet hung over the end by a good 30 cms but when I'd come back, he was gone.

I admit that it might have taken me a few minutes to drum up the confidence to go downstairs and I  _may_  have almost stepped on the stairs only to backup a few times. Can you blame me? I'd slept with someone's son and that someone was Molly who was currently downstairs and shouting up a storm. I mean, I hadn't shagged him but we were alone all night in one room with the door closed.

Years of boys being watched like a hawk by my mother, and their mums glaring at me if I was around their sons left me with the sense that Mothers felt anyone who might sleep with their child wasn't worthy of their kid. I mean, not that my mum felt like that. She was more concerned with me tarnishing the legacy via an unplanned bastard than a boy having his hand up my shirt.

"Amelia?" I felt my whole body jump when a crackly boy's spoke up behind me. I was between murdering the boy so he couldn't breathe a word of this to anyone, and awkwardly trying to pretend I hadn't just spent several minutes cowering at the thought of seeing a whole family together again.

"Merlin!" I gasped after a second, holding my hand to my heart as I spun around at the top of the stairs to see Harry. "Morning, Harry." I nodded at him, taking a few steps away from the steps incase I got startled to the point I'd tumble down them. I think I've decided on the pretending I wasn't a giant coward route.

"Morning." He bobbed his head back at me, looking a little shy now as he stared at the floor. He said nothing else, just continuing to nod at me even after I'd stopped. I could tell that his green eyes kept glancing between me and the floor with some sort of expectancy at each nod.

"Alright there, Harry?" I raised a brow, letting my hand fall back to my hip as my heartbeat slowed back to it's normal pace. I figured something was wrong but, honestly, I physically lack the emotional intelligence to figure it out from his face.

"Uh, yeah! Yeah, I'm fine. Just a nightmare." He picked his head up, turning pink at the ears and I assumed that I'd embarrassed him somehow.

"Right..." I swallowed, feeling bad that I'd upset him, "well uh. I'm here if you need something?" I shrugged, running my hand through the strands of blonde that I'd missed when I put it up. "Nightmares can be awful." I'd declared this with the hope that it'd alleviate my guilt and that he wouldn't actually ask for anything.

If you asked Alice I'm sure she'd tell you that underneath my brash sarcastic exterior, there was a girl that withdrew from people quickly out of fear. Or that I wasn't intentionally cold, but that my face was just a little scary when I wasn't smiling and I was actually a lovely person.

"Thanks." Harry smiled at me after a moment, and I recognised it as a true smile. He had dimples forming in the corners of his lips and the funny little wrinkles around his eyes despite him being only 13. They made me wonder if he'd been forced to deal with things that were years above his maturity, I imagined that being the boy who lived would do that to a little boy.

It's true that I wasn't intentionally cold, but I wasn't the sort that Alice attributed me to: the damsel that only needed a little bit of compassion to open up and reveal her warm and squishy insides. Alice was a romantic and I was more of a cynic, but I loved her anyways in my own little way. She was the sort to give her whole heart to someone and shower them with love or the kind of person that would offer up her kidney if I asked.

"Any time, love." I smiled back at him, hoping that mine was just as genuine as his had been before I turned and decided to just go down the stairs. It wasn't as though I could just hang around the top anymore now that I had company.

I glanced at Harry over my shoulder, "shall we head down?" I might be a bit of a coward by myself, but definitely not when I had someone watching me.

"Ah, yes." He was quiet and nearly pushed me as he went past, only to stop and give me a small smile. "Bet I'll make it there before you!" He continued his scurry down the creaky stairs and jumped off the final one outside of my view with a triumphant 'HAH'.

I stood there for a moment, grasping the railing with a dumbfounded look. I realised that I'd just been challenged to a race of sorts and I'd just lost it to a bloody tween.

I started taking the stairs three at a time, and catapulted myself off the last one to dash by the living room. I spotted a head of messy black hair and glasses which I practically charged towards, "bet you can't beat me to the kitchen, kid!" I was grinning at the shocked expression on his face right before I pushed him into one of the twins and ran past them all.

There were a few shouts behind me but I'd ignored them and attempted to run faster when I passed the floo and saw the kitchen up ahead. In an effort not to collide into whatever chaos that might be in there, I tried to hit my brakes and came to a nearly disastrous stop just past the frame.

I cleared my throat at the four faces of confusion and went to stride past two of them to take a seat next to Bill. "Morni-," I felt the force of three bodies slamming into my back.

"Amelia!"

"Fred, George! Look what you've done!"

In went Hermione, I assumed, as she tried to grab a hold of a pale elbow that was infact mine, "Harry!"

Good to know that I had the elbows of a 13 year old boy. To be fair, it was a jumbled and squirming mess of knees, elbows, and heads butting. We were all trying to stand up after we'd figured out that we'd landed on Molly's kitchen floor.

"Ames?" I blinked once then twice and then a third time just to make sure I actually was looking up at the worried face of Bill Weasley. "You okay?"

"Morning." I mumbled my vaguely embarrassed greeting to Bill whose face creased as he began to grin. "Who knew you were this active in the morning?" Great, he's laughing now. I think I regret this. Yeah, no, I  _definitely_  regret this. Stone floors don't play around, man, they're cold and hard.

"What is this?" Molly was shrieking as she scolded the room.

"We don't treat guests by piling onto them in the bloody kitchen! And look, you broke Harry's glasses! Honestly, who raised you two?" Nevermind, I think she's just yelling at the twins. I tried shuffled backwards when one of the twin's gangly legs almost swiped my nose with a socked foot, it made me nervous that they'd just barely missed.

I sat up and fumbled to get to my feet and away from the boys which wasn't as easy as you'd think despite all of Molly's yelling. "Bloody hell." I breathed as I struggled to stand only to get a foot to my shin and collapse again. It seemed that we were all discombobulated and a bit tangled in a mess of gangly limbs.

I was in the motions of just sighing and laying back down to wait for everyone else to stop struggling before I tried to get back up again, but it appeared that someone else had a different idea. Someone much stronger than Hermione dragged me away from the group with two large hands wrapped under my armpits.

Ah, Bill. Of course it was Bill. I allowed him to pull me up gently, assuming that I'd go on my own afterwards. However he proceeded to quietly decide that I needed his arm around my waist to get to the table by doing exactly that and even pulling out a chair for me sit in. Luckily for my wounded pride, he figured that it was fine to let me go so I could actually sit down in the chair.

"Thanks." I murmured as I grabbed the coffee mug from his hands, and took a sip out of it out of the pure need to re-establish some sort of personal independence here. Normally I'd have brushed him off and insisted on doing it myself out of pure embarrassment, but right now I was a little disoriented from the pure force of three teenage boys running into my back.

Fred started pointing a finger at me when I looked back, tipping the cup to sip it, "she started it!" I gagged at the harsh taste of pure black coffee and started coughing, shaking my head as George agreed, "yeah, she pushed Harry into us and took off!"

"I did not!" I retorted through the coughing while I shoved the cup back to Bill's waiting hand. The liquid had rushed back in my mouth, as I spoke, and hit my throat. It'd been oblivious to the terrors it's owner had just unleashed upon it and was currently protesting by making me think that I might actually choke on coffee.

Molly had paused her scolding to listen to me for a second, but quickly turned back to the twins, "you can't go around blaming others! You'd think I ran a bloody circus act with the likes of you two."

Hah. Molly took  _my_  side...I might be able to get away with a lot if I had a woman like her behind me. Alice was lovely, but she didn't exactly induce terror in all that saw her. I glanced up at Bill to find he'd been watching the entire interaction with glee.

"Little too strong for you?" He raised a brow, smiling at me as he sipped his stupidly strong coffee with a smug look about him. Nearly everything in me wanted me to verbally smack the look off of his attractive face but found that I couldn't do it. I'd feel bad for making him frown, which was ridiculous.

I shook my head, "no. Not at all. I love a good cup thats as black and bitter as my soul." I gave him a thumbs up with one hand and covered my mouth with the other as the last of the drink made its way down my throat.

He stared at me as I stared at him for a moment before he took a seat next to me, placing the cup down on the table smoothly. I realised that he actually looked rather adorable in the mornings and attempted to smother the intrusive thought while I eyed him.

His hair was pulled back and he'd put on a wrinkly grey t-shirt with his pajama bottoms, he wasn't particularly glamourous but the sight was charming. Somehow he was cuter now that he was when I'd first met him. Some people were so tall and beautiful, even when they'd just rolled out of bloody bed, and here I sat, 162 cms with frizzy blonde hair. I imagined that this look resembled a shrunken mountain troll in jeans that haven't been washed for a week.

"Black and bitter as your soul, eh?" He nodded, glancing at me as I nodded back, "so. A cup of milk then?" He raised a brow, smirking as I smacked him on the shoulder, " _hush._ " I was intimidating! Okay, maybe not at first glance but if he'd seen the way I treated 1,000 year old caves, he'd think I was a little scary.


End file.
